Perfecting  the  Earth 


A  PIECE  OF  POSSIBLE  HISTORY 

BY 

C.  W.  Wooldridge,  B.S.,  M.D. 

Author  of  "The  Missing  Sense,"    "The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  Hand, 
and  other  Philosophical  and  Sociological  Essays 


THE    UTOPIA   PUBLISHING    COMPANY 

CLEVELAND,  OHIO 


Copyright,  1902, 

by 

CHARLES  W.  WOOLDRIDGE. 


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v^BR 


Perfecting  the  Earth 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Conditions  prevailing  in  1913.    General  Goodwill's  proposition  j>    ^~ 
to  the  administration.    Preparatory  measures. 

CHAPTER  H. 

The  field  of  operations  described.  Coal  and  iron  miners  en- 
listed as  citizen  tenantry.    Capitalists  object  in  vain. 

CHAPTER  HI. 

The  iron  works  equipped.  Industrial  district  located.  Skele- 
ton plan  of  city.  Progress  on  main  irrigating  canal.  The 
aqueduct.  Fitting  land  for  irrigation  and  tillage.  Basis 
of  water  power.  Other  works  and  industries  established — 
year  1914. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

City  named  Fort  Goodwill.  Preparations  for  building.  Sewers 
and  subways.  Plan  of  the  city.  Advertisement  for  archi- 
tects and  plans.  The  model  block — diagram.  The  water 
works,  gas  works,  and  primary  edifices.  The  board  of 
forestry  organized.  The  Fort  Goodwill  and  San  Bernar- 
dino railway. 

CHAPTER  V. 

Water,  steam,  and  electric  power.  The  power  stations.  The 
irrigating  and  power  works  on  the  wheat  lands.  Plowing 
and  sowing  for  the  first  wheat  crop. 


4r58G;j(i 


4  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  California  division.  Description  of  the  country ;  its  aridity. 
The  self-filtering  reservoirs  of  the  San  Jacinto  mountains, 
A  plateau  marked  as  a  city  site.  The  quarries  of  the  San 
Jacinto.  The  railway  contingent  meets  the  Fort  Goodwill 
division.  Mysterious  grading  and  foundations  in  the  val- 
ley of  the  Santa  Margarita  river. 

CHAPTER  VH. 

The  second  period — 1915.  Operations  at  Fort  Goodwill  dur- 
ing the  winter.  Bridge  over  the  canyon.  The  White 
River  canal  and  dam.  The  main  canal  extended  in  the 
valley  of  the  west  fork  of  the  Uintah,  to  serve  the  wheat 
lands  of  1915.  The  great  dam  of  the  Green  River  canyon. 
The  tunneled  canal  through  the  Green  River  highlands. 

CHAPTER  VHI. 

Progress  in  Fort  Goodwill.    Surplus  coal  a  basis  of  exchange,  f/* 
Commissary  department  and  time  credit  system  of  pay-**"^ 
ments.     The  business  men  object.     General   Goodwill's 
reply  to  the  business  men's  committee. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Progress  in  Fort  Goodwill  continued.  Building  dwelling 
houses.  The  paper  mache  lumber.  Paving  the  streets. 
Proclamation  issued  calling  for  citizen  tenantry  to  people 
the  city.    The  Fort  Goodwill  dairy. 

CHAPTER  X. 

The  live  stock  department.  The  exercising  ranges  for  the 
cows.  The  poultry  yards.  The  fertilizer  works.  The  first 
harvest.  The  temporary  camp  gi'ound  irrigated  and  fitted 
as  an  orchard.    The  city  peopled. 


Table  of  Contents.  5 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Activities  of  the  year  1916.  Building  the  great  dam.  The 
White  River  dam  completed.  Subsoil  system  of  irrigation 
applied  to  the  first  wheat  fields.  Two  hundred  square 
miles  of  new  land  put  under  power  in  the  White  River 
district.  Pushing  the  tunneled  canal.  Conditions  required 
in  a  town  site.  City  of  Mount  Ceres  laid  out.  Progress  in 
the  San  Bernardino  district.  Auxiliary  explorations  and 
enterprises.  Structural  steel  arriving.  The  city  of  New 
Utopia.    The  San  Jacinto  mountains  and  the  catacombs. 

CHAPTER  Xn. 

The  mysterious  foundations.  The  copper  plating  works  at 
San  Bernardino.  Death  valley,  Vitre,  and  the  great  glass 
works.  The  business  men's  views  versus  the  condition  of 
the  people.    Result  of  the  election  of  1916. 

CHAPTER  XHI. 
Third  period— 1917-1921.    The  Fort  Goodwill  schools. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Life  in  Fort  Goodwill.  The  lawns  and  the  pavements.  The 
horseless  age.  The  lightness  of  traffic.  The  kitchens,  din- 
ing rooms,  and  table  service.  Restaurants  connected  with 
the  workshops.  A  workingmen's  dinner.  Bicycles  in 
Fort  Goodwill.  House  services  and  furnishings.  The 
open  hearth  fire.  The  individual  house  and  the  block  of 
apartments.  The  business  section  of  the  town  absent. 
Millionaires  in  Fort  Goodwill. 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Operations  of  the  Board  of  Forestry. 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Lake  Diaz. 


/f^ftrifu; 


6  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Progress  at  San  Bernardino,  and  at  Vitre — 1917-1918.  A  new 
power  introduced. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Building  the  great  flue. 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  Mount  Ceres  district. 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Diminution  of  numbers  in  the  army.  Required  hours  of  ser- 
vice reduced  to  six.  Uphft  in  the  plane  of  life  attending 
this  change.  Effect  of  the  example  of  the  new  cities  on 
the  nation  at  large. 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

The  great  rain  flue  and  New  Utopia.  The  effect  of  the  great 
flue  a  surprise.  The  error  of  the  savants,  and  a  discussion 
of  thermometry ;  a  discovery  in  meteorology.  The  growth 
of  New  Utopia ;  its  beauty.  Effect  of  the  great  flue.  The 
girdling  canal  of  the  San  Bernardino  range.  The  arid 
region  obliterated. 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

The  cellar  of  New  Utopia.  The  city's  industries  and  environ- 
ments. 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Life  and  death  in  New  Utopia.  The  hours  of  daily  service 
again  reduced.  Schedule  of  one  day's  lectures  and  recrea- 
tions from  copy  of  daily  bulletin  and  visitor's  guide.  The 
dining  rooms  and  table  service.  The  organ  chimes. 
Funeral  customs ;  origin  of  change. 


Table  of  Contents.  7 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Department  of  Civil  Industries  and  Public  Works  organized 
in  the  United  States  Government.  The  great  celebration 
of  the  Fourth  of  July.  General  Goodwill's  valedictory 
address.    The  army  disbanded. 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

A  New  Utopian  Sunday  lecture — Religion  versus  Philosophy. 
Part  1st :     A  critique  on  Kidd's  Social  Evolution. 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

A  New  Utopian  Sunday  lecture  continued.  Part  2nd :  A 
scientific  place  for  another  order  of  being — a  piece  de 
resistance  for  philosophical  critics,  being  a  study  of  the 
qualities  of  the  luminiferous  ether  and  of  the  ultimate 
constitution  of  matter,  based  on  the  researches  of  Pro- 
fessors Helmholtz,  Sir  William  Thomson,  W.  K.  Clififord, 
J.  Clerk  Maxwell,  and  others. 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 
Present  conditions — 1947  A.  D.    New  Utopia  revisited. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

A  New  Utopian  schoolhouse;  its  origin  from  the  people's 
forum.  Site,  plan,  and  general  description  of  the  building. 
The  hall  of  industry.  The  hall  of  the  sun,  the  great  orrery 
and  the  celestial  sphere. 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

A  New  Utopian  schoolhouse  continued.  The  gallery  of 
evolution. 


8  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

A  New  Utopian  schoolhouse  concluded.  The  gallery  of  his- 
tory. The  observatory  on  the  vertex.  An  excursion 
round  the  world. 


CHAPTEP  XXXI. 

A  journey — New  Utopia  to  Mount  Ceres.  Farming  on  the 
Mohave  desert.  Vitre.  New  wheat  districts  in  Nevada 
and  southwestern  Utah.  A  cure  for  the  hessian  fly  and 
wheat  midge.  The  forests  in  the  Wahsatch  mountains. 
The  city  of  Mount  Ceres.  The  landscape.  The  Mount 
Ceres  water  works. 


CHAPTER  XXXH. 

Fort  Goodwill  again.  The  school  children  and  the  squirrels. 
An  excursion.  The  city  at  sunrise  on  a  June  morning. 
The  orchard  and  the  birds.  The  woods  in  the  canyon. 
The  wild  deer  visit  us.  The  view  from  observation  point. 
The  wild  flowers  of  the  woodland.  A  clover  field.  Cut- 
ting and  hauUng  clover  for  the  cows.  The  workingmen's 
return  from  the  industries  to  their  homes  in  the  city. 
Signs  of  a  public  bereavement. 


CHAPTER  XXXni. 
The  obsequies  of  General  Goodwill.    The  end. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

1.  Author's  portrait ;  frontispiece. 

2.  Map.     The  Uintah  or  Fort  Goodwill  district.  .  .Chap.     3 

3.  Map.    The  environs  of  Fort  Goodwill Chap.     4 

4.  Diagram.    The  model  block,  Fort  Goodwill ....  Chap.     4 

5.  Full   page   drawing.      A   power   station    in   the 

Uintah  mountains Chap.     5 

6.  Map.    Tlie  Southern  California  district Chap.     6 

7.  Full  page  drawing.     A  glimpse  of  the  tunneled 

canal  Chap.     7 

8.  Diagram.      Section   of  cow   barn   frame.      Fort 

Goodwill  dairy Chap.     9 

9.  Diagram.  A  wheat  block  in  the  catacombs,  New 

Utopia Chap.  22 

10.  Drawing.     The  auditorium,  San  Jacinto  moun- 

tains, California Chap.  24 

11.  Drawing.    Herron  pavilion.  New  Utopia Chap.  25 

12.  Drawing.    A  New  Utopian  schoolhouse Chap.  28 

13.  Diagram.     Plan  and  section  of  frame  of  New 

Utopian  schoolhouse Chap.  28 

14.  Map.    The  Mount  Ceres  district Chap.  31 

(Illustrations  and  maps  drawn  by  the  author.) 


PREFACE. 

This  is  a  Utopian  book,  but  its  Utopia  is  not,  as  Utopias 
generally  are  said  to  be,  in  the  clouds;  on  the  contrary  it  is 
worked  out  with  much  detail  in  accordance  with  a  natural 
order  of  sequence  from  existing  conditions,  with  every  point 
definite  in  time  and  place,  true  in  all  fundamental  physical 
features  to  the  best  maps,  true  also  to  the  law  of  cause  and 
effect  and  duly  regarding  the  limitations  of  nature. 

Some  to  whom  this  book,  in  manuscript,  has  been  shown, 
object  that  it  is  too  scientific ;  perhaps  it  is  the  most  scientific 
of  Utopian  books.  That  Utopias,  from  Bellamy  back  to  Plato, 
are  in  cloudland.  unscientific,  out  of  touch  with  reality  and 
unattainable,  is  the  charge  which  these  critics  make,  while  the 
logical  steps  required  to  make  Utopia  scientific  and  plant  it 
on  the  rocks  are  the  features  which,  when  presented,  they  most 
object  to.  This  book,  however,  is  written  in  the  Ijelief  that 
these  steps  are  needed.  The  aim  has  been  to  limit  the  narra- 
tive to  the  possible,  and,  following  the  steps  related,  to  the 
practicable,  while  each  consequence  stated  must  necessarily 
follow  from  the  measures  preceding.  If  these  details  had  been 
omitted,  then  my  Utopia,  like  the  other  Utopias,  would  have 
been  in  the  clouds  and  the  purpose  of  the  book  could  not  have 
been  attained.  If  the  earth  is  ever  to  be  perfected,  such  meas- 
ures as  are  heie  detailed  must  be  taken,  and  as  in  the  order  of 
nature  first  things  must  be  done  first,  so  ii?  the  plan  of  this 
book  first  things  are  first  related.  In  necessary  sequence  from 
these  measures,  from  a  condition  natural  and  probable  as 
things  are  going,  the  purpose  is  to  evolve  the  conduct  of  a 
world  as  it  is  conceived  that  the  world  ought  to  be  conducted, 
and  to  plant  in  the  minds  of  readers  a  better  ideal  than  that 
which  usually  animates  mankind. 


12  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

In  building  an  edifice  the  foundation  must  first  be  laid,  but, 
while  the  steps  in  that  part  of  the  structure  are  not  without  a 
certain  interest  in  themselves,  the  interest  felt  there  is  mainly 
reflected  from  the  superstructure  and  the  purposes  which  it  is 
to  serve.  In  this  book  the  first  twelve  chapters  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  laying  of  a  foundation.  The  building  of  the 
superstructure  is  comprised  in  the  twelve  chapters  following, 
while  nine  chapters  at  the  conclusion  of  the  book  portray  the 
life  and  conditions  prevailing  in  the  perfected  earth  after  the 
work  is  practically  completed. 

If  anyone  sitting  down  to  the  repast  here  presented  finds 
himself  growing  satiated  with  the  first  course  and  impatient  for 
the  ideal  conditions  that  one  expects  in  a  Utopian  essay,  per- 
haps it  might  not  be  asking  too  much  of  him  that  he  should 
pass  on  for  the  time  to  the  subsequent  parts  of  the  book  where 
such  conditions  are  treated ;  he  will  find  no  better  Utopia  any- 
where than  here,  and  the  steps  by  which  this  Utopia  is  made 
practicable  will  keep  as  fresh  for  another  occasion. 

The  plan  of  this  book  not  only  permits  but  necessitates  a 
variety  in  its  contents  almost  equal  to  that  in  real  life,  and  it  is 
hoped  that  for  a  great  variety  of  tastes  it  contains  something  of 
sufficient  value  to  repay  perusal. 

C.  W.  WOOLDRIDGE. 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  March,  1902. 


INTRODUCTION. 

It  is  hoped  that  none  of  those  who  may  read  this  book  will 
imagine  that  the  military  role  which  it  sets  forth  is,  in  the 
author's  mind,  the  one  and  only  way  t^irnnp-h  whirh  n-^anlinH 
may  be .  f  manripatcd  frr^m  t|ie  J-x^ndag-e  of  poverty  and  the 
ultimate  perfection  of  the  earth  can  be  attained.  Far  otherwise. 
There  are  many  paths,  each  leading-  directly  from  one  of  many 
starting  points,  and  each  from  such  starting  point  being  the 
shortest  and  easiest  way  to  reach  the  desired  goal. 

The  line  of  progress  set  forth  in  this  book  is  simply  one  of 
those  that  will  be  available  if  one  of  the  worst  tendencies  now 
apparent  should  come  to  the  consummation  described  in  our 
opening. 

If  we  should  start  from  where  we  now  are,  taking  the 
simplest  possible  measures  that  would  remedy  the  evils  now 
existing  among  us,  so  that  we  put  an  end  to  the  evils,  we  could 
not  fail  to  change  our  social  order  from  the  competitive  and 
commercial  to  the  co-operative  and  educational  in  doing  so, 
and,  this  accomplished,  all  physical  works  that  may  be  desired 
are  feasible. 

Here  in  the  city  in  which  we  now  write,  in  the  second 
winter  of  the  twentieth  century,  we  are  in  the  enjoyment  of 
unexampled  prosperity.  All  important  newspapers  of  the  city 
are  agreed  that  this  is  the  fact ;  they  prove  it,  too,  by  the  reports 
of  banks,  by  the  volume  of  business  transactions  as  reported 
in  the  various  commercial  bulletins,  and  by  all  the  various 
statements  and  records  by  which  trade  and  conunerce  keep 
track  of  their  doings  and  conditions. 

And  yet,  in  this  city,  this  winter,  we  have  had  detaik-d  in 
our  newspapers  the  tragedy  of  one  man,  sober  and  industrious, 
the  father  of  a  family  dependent  on  his  earnings  for  support, 


14  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

who,  having-  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  his  employment,  sought 
in  vain  for  months,  both  in  his  own  city  and  elsewhere,  for 
opportunity  to  earn  bread  for  his  family  now  reduced  to  star- 
vation. Driven  at  last  to  desperation,  he  applied  for  work  in 
the  construction  of  a  water  tunnel  under  the  bed  of  Lake  Erie. 
This  is  special  v.'ork,  which  must  be  done  in  compressed  air, 
which  none  but  those  trained  to  it  can  do,  but  it  seemed  his 
only  chance,  and  to  get  the  job  the  poor  fellow  falsely  asserted 
that  he  had  been  a  tunnel  worker  all  his  life.  He  was  em- 
ployed, and,  weakened  as  he  was  by  privation,  before  the  first 
day  was  past  he  was  dead. 

Then  the  newspapers  printed  his  story ;  charity  stepped  in 
and  carried  food,  fuel  and  clothing  to  his  perishing  family. 
Now  they  are  heard  of  no  more ;  what  may  have  become  of 
them  after  that  temporary  supply  was  exhausted  God  may 
know  but  the  people  do  not. 

Again :  an  unknown  man  is  found  face  downward  in  a 
snowdrift  dead,  and  the  fact  comes  to  light  that  he  has,  day 
after  day,  been  an  applicant  for  work  to  an  employer  of  labor 
near  the  place  where  he  died,  begging  for  employment,  saying 
that  he  nnist  have  work  because  he  had  a  starving  family  that 
could  not  wait.  He  had  been  put  ofif  from  day  to  day  with 
hope  for  the  morrow,  but  here  he  lay  dead  in  the  snow.  He 
had  found  death  but  not  employment. 

Another:  A  young  man  met  the  most  dreadful  loss  that 
can  befall  a  man,  he  lost  his  job,  and  after  a  few  days  of  fruit- 
less efifort  to  find  other  employment  he  gave  it  up  as  hopeless 
and  put  a  bullet  through  his  brain.  Another  under  similar 
conditions  is  carried  to  the  asylum  insane.  These  are  but  a 
few  of  the  tragedies  of  life  happening  within  a  single  month,  in 
a  time  of  great  prosperity,  in  one  of  the  most  prosperous  of 
American  cities,  but  for  each  to  whom,  thus  death  or  madness 
brings  release  many  suiifer  no  less  keenly  that  their  sufferings 
are  continued  on  and  on  without  cessation.  The  wounded 
outnumber  the  killed,  in  this  as  in  other  wars,  and  suffer  more. 

If  these  things  happen  now  in  tim.es  of  prosperity,  to  what 
may  not  adversity  bring  us? 


Introduction.  15 

Such  cases  growing  more  and  more  numerous,  is  it  too 
much  to  hope  for,  or,  O  ye  business  men  who  so  vigilantly 
guide  the  public  policy  in  such  paths  that  your  interests  may  in 
no  case  be  trenched  upon,  is  it  too  intolerable  to  be  permitted, 
no  matter  how  many  lives  may  be  sacrificed  to  avoid  it,  that 
some  American  city  shall  provide  opportunity  for  every  one 
who  needs  employment  to  find  it  and  live  thereby? 

That  in  the  last  analysis  it  is  by  labor  that  all  are  supported 
none  will  deny.  Shall,  then,  men  able  and  anxious  to  render 
the  necessary  labor  be  permitted  to  support  themselves,  or 
shall  they  not? 

That  is  the  question  which  with  greater  and  greater  insist- 
ence is  ever  being  pressed  on  every  community  in  which  there 
are  needy  unemployed,  and  no  answer  but  a  direct  and  un- 
equivocal yes  will  settle  that  question. 

There  are  four  conceivable  lines  of  action  along  which  an 
effective  remedy  for  the  evils  of  poverty  and  nonemployment 
might  possibly  be  reached:  (1)  by  voluntary  association  of' 
individuals;  (2)  by  municipal  action  in  our  towns  and  cities; 
(3)  by  state  action,  and  (4)  by  national  action.  But,  as  matters 
now  stand,  every  one  of  these  lines  of  action  unless  it  be  the 
last  is  hampered  and  hindered  by  our  laws  and  state  constitu- 
tions. If  only  the  machinery  of  the  law  would  remove  its 
restraining  hand  w-e  might  very  soon,  either  by  voluntary  asso- 
ciation or  by  municipal  action,  somewhere  plant  the  public^ 
works  and  public  stores  necessary  to  employ  the  unemployed 
in  supplying  their  own  needs  and  to  distribute  to  them  the 
product  of  their  own  labor.  If  each  town  and  city  had  the  right 
of  self  government  in  local  affairs,  including  the  right  to  do,  for 
the  public  benefit,  anything  which  any  man  or  any  corporation 
may  lawfully  do,  it  would  not  be  long,  I  think,  before  an  effec- 
tive remedy  for  these  evils  would  be  in  operation. 

In  so  far  as  any  attempts  have  hitherto  been  made  by  the 
public  to  provide  employment  for  needy  unemployed,  some 
unproductive,  or  indirectly  remunerative  labor,  such  as  work 
on  the  improvement  of  highways,  has  usually  been  found  for 
them,  work  that  has  always  been  regarded  as  temporary,  and 


16  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

the  remuneration  for  which  has  purposely  been  kept  so  meager 
that  no  one  would  desire  to  continue  in  it  if  he  could  possibly 
find  other  employment. 

But  such  expedients  necessarily  imply  that  those  who  own 
property,  and,  secondarily,  those  who  are  privately  employed 
and  living  by  their  labor,  meagerly  though  it  may  be,  must  be 
taxed  to  provide  money  with  which  to  pay  the  wages  of  such 
public  employes. 

Such  expedients  make  no  attempt  to  cure  the  poverty  of 
their  employes  but  rather  carefully  avoid  doing  so,  and  the 
employment  of  the  imemployed  in  this  manner  is  an  added 
burden  rather  than  a  relief  to  the  community  so  employing 
them.  Clearly,  no  remedy  for  the  evils  under  consideration 
can  lie  in  this  direction. 

If,  again,  for  such  needy  unemployed,  productive  work 
shall  be  provided  in  various  manufactories,  whose  products 
shall  be  put  on  the  market  and  a  money  wage  paid  to  the 
laborers  from  the  proceeds,  the  cause  which  in  the  first  place 
prevented  their  employment  will  be  intensified  and  the  condi- 
tion before  intolerable  will  be  made  worse. 

It  is  because  they  cannot  sell  the  output  of  an  unlimited 
industrial  force  at  a  profit,  as  fast  as  it  can  be  produced,  that 
private  employers  cannot  employ  all  who  need  employment ; 
if,  then,  the  community  shall  throw  an  added  supply  of  goods 
on  the  market  which  is  unable  to  buy  what  is  already  offered, 
neither  can  these  goods  be  sold,  and  obviously  no  relief  lies 
that  way.  It  is  not  because  labor  is  unproductive  but  because 
the  system  of  sale  for  profit  interposes  between  labor  and  its 
product  that  laborers  are  poor  and  often  unemployed. 

Obviously,  poverty  and  unemployment  are  two  phases  of 
the  same  evil,  and  there  is  no  way  to  remove  that  evil  while 
leaving  its  cause  undisturbed.  By  the  employment  of  the  un- 
employed in  producing  directly  the  things  which  they  need, 
and  distributing  their  product  to  the  producers,  an  effective 
system  of  exchanges  being  included  in  such  productive  em- 
ployment, we  set  aside  the  cause  of  the  evil.  This  course  will 
meet  no  obstacle  in  itself  until  all  the  wants  of  the  employes 


Introduction.  17 

are  satisfied,  and  beyond  this  there  will  be  no  need  for  their 
employment. 

This  remedy,  however,  has  been,  and  doubtless  will  con- 
tinue to  be,  strenuously  resisted.  The  reason  of  such  resistance 
is  because  such  a  remedy  must  interfere  disastrously  with  busi- 
ness. If  the  community  is  producing  the  things  which  mer- 
chants are  trying  to  sell  at  a  profit,  producing  them  as 
effectively  and  economically  as  they  are  produced  for  the  trade, 
and  distributing  them  to  the  consumers  at  the  labor  cost  of 
their  production,  then,  of  course,  no  one  will  any  longer  pay 
dealers'  and  jobbers'  profits  on  the  things  which  can  now  be 
had  at  their  manufacturing  cost.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  laborers 
can  now  find  employment,  and  receive  in  compensation  the 
equivalent  of  the  whole  product  of  their  toil,  they  will,  of 
course,  no  longer  labor  for  the  profit  of  private  employers  and 
receive  a  money  wage  which  represents  but  a  fraction  of  the 
value  of  their  product.  Obviously  this  remedy  means  the  end 
of  the  whole  profit  and  commercial  system. 

Hence  it  may  be  assumed  that  practically  all  who  directly 
or  indirectly  are  living  by  profits  will  resist  it  as  long  as  it  is 
possible  to  do  so.  And  all  who  directly  or  indirectly  are  living 
by  profits,  means  all  who  have  any  influence  on  the  course  of 
affairs,  everybody  except  laborers,  from  whom  ultimately  all 
profits  come. 

Hence  the  hope  for  this  remedy  to  be  applied  directly  in 
our  cities  is  remote,  and  the  distress,  and  destruction  of  life 
and  character  which  is  likely  to  precede  it,  is  harrowing  to 
contemplate. 

Another  way  is  open  along  the  line  of  state  action,  which, 
though  ultimately  effecting  the  same  results,  might  possibly 
postpone  a  part  of  that  resistance  until  the  effect  on  business 
should  be  felt,  and  the  opportunities  of  the  new  system  should 
also  be  present  to  offset  that  effect. 

If  the  governing  power  of  the  state  were  friendly  to  the 
purpose,  and  legal  obstacles  were  removed,  a  state  such  as 
Ohio  might  very  effectively  employ  the  unemployed  in  supply- 
ing their  own  needs  by  establishing  two  or  more  settlements 


18  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

for  that  purpose  so  differing  in  location  and  industries  that  they 
would  supplement  each  other.  For  instance,  a  manufacturing 
town  might  be  planted  on  Lake  Erie,  and  an  extensive  agri- 
cultural settlement  established  inland.  This  latter  could,  with- 
out detriment  to  its  agricultural  uses,  be  so  located  as  to 
mclude  coal  mining  among  its  resources.  Then,  with  a  state 
railway,  electric  or  otherwise,  connecting  them,  and  their  indus- 
tries being  properly  balanced,  there  would  be  but  a  very  small 
portion  of  their  needs  that  could  not  be  self  supplied. 

An  obstacle  to  this  course  to  be  encountered  in  the  outset 
would  lie  in  the  fact  that  all  land  necessary  for  the  purpose 
would  have  to  be  bought  from  private  owners,  and  the  moment 
any  considerable  T)ody  of  land  privately  owned  is  desired  for 
public  use  up  jumps  the  price.  The  private  ownership  of  land 
seems  to  be  a  great  obstacle  lying  across  the  threshold  of  the 
way  to  relief  either  by  state  action  or  voluntary  association. 

To  the  United  States,  if  the  nation  would  take  such  action, 
the  way  is  yet  open  without  encountering  that  obstacle,  and 
there  is  no  need  to  wait  for  a  great  military  army  in  order  to 
begin,  that  would  be  to  wait  for  a  condition  far  less  advanta- 
geous than  that  now  existing. 

The  arid  lands  of  the  west,  that  yet  remain  in  possession 
of  the  government,  seem  to  me  to  constitute  a  great  opportu- 
nity, an  opportunity  so  valuable  that  the  advantage  of  its  public 
ownership  far  more  than  offsets  the  disadvantage  of  the  aridity 
and  the  remoteness  of  these  lands.  There  has  of  late  been  a 
growing  interest  in  projects  for  the  irrigation,  at  the  national 
expense,  of  such  parts  of  this  arid  region  as  may,  by  methods 
feasible  under  present  conditions,  be  irrigable,  but  much  as  I 
would  like  to  see  that  work  done,  I  cannot  but  wish  that  for  the 
present  all  such  plans  may  come  to  naught,  for  the  intention  is 
to  establish  private  ownership  over  all  such  lands  as  fast  as  they 
may  be  supplied  with  water,  and  when  this  is  done  the  oppor- 
tunity which  they  now  present  for  great  things  for  the  good  of 
mankind  will  be  gone. 

But,  of  the  few  persons  who  have  read  this  book  in  manu- 
script, some  tell  me  that  the  works  described  in  it  are  so  colos- 


Introduction.  19 

sal,  so  out  of  relation  with  the  scale  of  magnitudes  to  which 
human  enterprises  have  ever  been  and  yet  are  limited,  that  they 
will  seem  to  most  people  like  a  dream  of  grandeur  out  of  touch 
with  the  possible,  the  product  of  a  kind  of  megalomania, 
scarcely  sane,  and  that  as  such  they  will  drop  the  subject  from 
their  minds  without  further  considerations. 

I  beg  the  reader  not  to  do  this.  Since  nations  first  began 
they  have  been  wont  to  tax  the  energies  of  their  people  to  the 
utmost  in  wars,  to  marshal  them  with  unity  of  purpose  to  ends 
of  destruction,  and  that  continuously  for  years,  until  they  have 
been  utterly  exhausted  and  in  some  cases  well  nigh  extermi- 
nated. 

If  now,  turning  such  energy  to  constructive  instead  of 
destructive  purposes,  nations  shall  marshal  and  unify  their 
spare  energy  to  useful  ends,  the  works  to  which  the  continuous 
energy  of  their  millions  should  thus  be  given  would  necessarily 
be  colossal. 

There  is  a  great  field  of  usefulness  as  yet  untouched  await- 
ing such  colossal  works,  a  field  of  usefulness  that  cannot  be 
entered  upon  except  by  works  thus  colossal,  and  it  seems  to  me 
a  perfectly  rational,  sane,  and  legitimate  exercise  of  the  imagi- 
nation, to  picture  such  colossal  works  and  study  the  effects 
which  can  be  accomplished  by  them. 

Figure  up,  if  you  will,  the  labor-time  and  the  quantity 
of  material  required  in  order  to  construct  any  of  the  works 
described  in  this  book,  but  remember  that  under  the  system 
herein  set  forth  labor-time  and  quantity  of  materials  are  the 
only  expenses  that  enter  into  the  works.  A  friend  of  the 
author  who  is  a  building  contractor  said :  "Why,  I  figured  up 
the  work  needed  to  construct  the  great  dam  on  the  Green 
river,  and  I  find  that  it  would  taken  an  army  of  24,000  men 
four  years,  as  we  figure  such  work,  just  to  lay  the  •stone  in  that 
dam." 

Well,  if  that  is  all,  it  is  certainly  feasible,  an  army  of  that 
size  to  lay  the  stone,  and  another  of  equal  size  to  prepare  it, 
and  a  third  larger  than  both  to  support  these  and  do  other 
needful  work,  can  be  had  just  as  soon  as  it  is  called  for. 


20  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

And  the  words,  further  on,  put  into  the  mouth  of  General 
Goodwill :  "It  would  be  very  poor  generalship  that  could  not, 
with  modern  machinery,  on  a  fertile  soil,  with  half  the  forces  at 
command,  support  the  whole,"  is  certainly  a  very  moderate 
statement  of  an  obvious  truth. 

A  good  deal  less  than  half,  with  very  inferior  means  and 
no  generalship  at  all,  is  doing  it  now,  after  a  fashion. 

Regarding  the  labor-time  required,  however,  to  do  such  a 
work  as  the  Green  River  dam,  it  should  be  considered  that  on 
such  a  work  progress  will  be  vastly  more  rapid  than  conditions 
permit  on  such  similar  work  as  is  now  done.  The  stone,  for 
instance,  in  such  a  work  will  be  laid  in  blocks  as  large  as 
machinery  can  be  made  to  handle  with  facility,  machinery  such 
as  building  contractors  now  can  neither  afiford  to  provide  them- 
selves with  nor  could  they  utilize  it  on  such  work  as  they  are 
now  called  upon  to  do. 

The  United  States  could  enlist  an  army  of  a  million,  or  two 
millions  of  volunteer  workmen,  on  the  plan  of  the  citizen 
tenantry  hereinafter  described,  as  fast  as  they  might  be  wanted, 
if  the  government  would  undertake  to  marshal  them  and  utilize 
their  energies  for  such  purposes  as  are  herein  set  forth. 

Of  one  condition  assumed  in  our  opening  chapter  it  may 
be  as  well  to  speak  a  word  here.  We  have  assumed  the  condi- 
tion of  the  country  being  at  peace  but  having  a  standing  army 
of  more  than  half  a  million  of  men.  Within  the  last  five  years 
the  army  of  the  United  States  has  quadrupled.  It  looks  just 
now  as  if  a  halt  had  been  called  on  the  tendency  which  for  ten 
years,  and  more,  has  been  so  strongly  manifested  to  increase 
the  army,  but  the  motives,  which  for  ten  years  before  the  out- 
break of  the  Spanish  war  led  to  the  cultivation  of  militarism 
among  us  in  every  possible  way,  are  yet  alive.  We  have  also, 
as  a  nation,  recently  expanded  into  a  world-power,  vastly  more 
subject  to  foreign  entanglements  than  formerly  we  were,  and  it 
is  not  in  our  blood  to  accept  either  encroachments  or  afifronts 
without  resenting  them. 

We  have  also  undertaken  the  government  of  various  alien 
races,  the  peoples  of  distant  islands,  whom  we  do  not  propose 


Introduction.  21 

to  admit  as  citizens  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  same  rights  and 
privileges  which  we  claim  for  ourselves,  and  who  don't  love  us 
as  well  as  they  were  thought  to  love  us  before  we  undertook  to 
govern  them  without  their  consent. 

These  facts  will  prevent  the  possibility  of  reducing  our 
present  military  strength,  and  the  first  threatening  symptom  of 
war  with  any  important  nation,  to  which  we  are  so  much  more 
exposed  than  formerly  we  were,  will  surely  increase  our  army 
to  nearer  a  million  than  half  a  million  of  men. 

The  opening  of  this  book  also  assumes  a  previous  political 
overturn,  into  the  details  of  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  enter. 


Perfecting  the  Earth. 

A  PIECE  OF  POSSIBLE  HISTORY. 

CHAPTER  I. 

The  year  1913  found  the  United  States  at  peace  and  in  no 
danger  of  war,  but  nevertheless  possessing  an  army  of  553,000 
men. 

The  people  had  grown  sick  and  tired  and  ashamed  of  the 
military  role  in  which  for  sixteen  years  and  more  they  had 
allowed  themselves  to  be  led,  and  once  more  had  asserted  their 
allegiance  to  the  principles  of  the  old  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, that  government  rightfully  exists  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  to  the  people  their  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  happiness, 
and  derives  its  just  powers  only  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed. 

The  idea  which  had  prevailed  during  the  preceding  epoch 
was  that  the  true  purpose  of  government  was  to  preserve  order 
while  business  men  amassed  wealth ;  that  it  rightfully  derived 
its  authority  from  the  will  of  the  owners  of  the  wealth  over 
which  it  held  sway ;  that  "those  who  have  no  stake  in  a  country 
ought  not  to  have  any  power  to  control  its  policy"  ;  that  the  just 
V  powers  of  government  being  derived  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed  is  nonsense,  good  enough  to  amuse  the  foolish 
masses  with  while  business  men  manage  affairs,  but  not  for  a 
moment  to  be  taken  seriously  as  a  basis  for  the  practical  con- 
duct of  government. 

Now,  however,  tiiis  unbusinesslike  and  impracticable  i)rin- 
ciple  had  been  reasserted,  and  in  accordance  with  it  the  Ameri- 


24  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

can  garrisons  had  been  withdrawn  from  outlying  parts  of  the 
earth,  leaving  the  people  of  those  regions  which  had  been 
occupied,  free  to  govern  themselves  according  to  their  own 
desires,  but  with  the  privilege  secured  to  all  Americans  to 
reside  or  trade  in  them  with  all  the  rights  and  privileges  per- 
taining to  their  own  people. 

But,  as  we  remarked  in  the  outset,  this  left  the  nation  with 
an  army  of  553,000  men  for  which  it  had  no  use  nor  need,  nor 
any  prospect  of  such  a  need. 

The  maintenance  of  this  army  was  a  grievous  burden,  but 
the  way  was  not  clear  to  disband  it.  Those  who  owned  the 
wealth  of  the  land,  a  class  that  had  for  a  long  time  been  grow- 
ing more  wealthy  and  less  numerous,  assured  the  nation  that 
it  was  enjoying  the  acme  of  prosperity.  They,  the  rich,  no 
doubt  spoke  truly  for  themselves ;  the  newspapers,  which  they 
owned,  with  great  unanimity  echoed  the  assertion,  but,  never- 
theless, the  multitude  of  the  people  found  it  hard  to  live  and 
make  ends  meet. 

In  addition  to  the  army  of  the  United  States,  which  the 
people  found  it  so  hard  to  maintain,  the  army  of  the  unem- 
ployed had  continued  to  grow,  and  they  too  had  to  be  main- 
tained in  some  manner  by  those  who  worked.  If  the  army 
were  disbanded  there  was  no  place  in  the  ranks  of  the  usefully 
employed  that  could  receive  the  soldiers,  and  the  army  knew  it, 
consequently  the  army  objected  to  disbandment. 

On  the  other  hand  the  people,  knowing  that  the  disband- 
ment of  the  army  could  only  result  in  turning  the  soldiers  loose 
as  an  addition  to  the  army  of  the  unemployed,  a  swarm  of 
tramps,  whose  military  training  would  make  them  formidable 
and  whose  miseries  would  drive  them  to  crime,  hesitated  to  ask 
for  their  disbandment,  even  though  the  maintenance  of  this 


Conditions   Prevailing   in    1913.  25 

great  army  was  a  burden  from  which  they  greatly  desired 
release. 

General  Theodore  Goodwill  had  recently  come  into  com- 
mand, and,  realizing  the  situation,  he  sought  permission  from 
the  administration  to  use  the  army  in  constructive  work  for  the 
public  benefit,  along  lines  which  he  would  explain  in  detail 
to  a  commission  authorized  to  pass  judgment  on  the  merits  of 
his  plans.  He  claimed  that  if  given  power  to  use  the  army  as 
he  wished  he  could  relieve  the  distress  of  the  situation  by 
accomplishing  three  objects,  each  greatly  to  be  desired,  namely, 
first,  he  would  soon  make  the  army  self-supporting:  spronrl 
^he  would  make  army  life  wholesome,  and  ultimately  lead  the 
soldiers  out  of  military  life  into  free  citizenship ;  and  thir(;L  he 
would  make  world  improvements  which  would  he  a  bles^jii^  to 
mankind,  and  especially  to  the  United  States. 

Since  it  would  for  sometime  be  desirable  to  keep  the  pur- 
pose and  character  of  some  of  his  contemplated  works  a  secret, 
he  asked  for  the  appointment  of  a  commission  of  scientific  men, 
whose  judgment  would  conmiand  the  respect  of  the  world,  to 
consider  the  practicability  and  soundness  of  the  projects  which 
he  would  explain  to  them,  and  which  commission  should  have 
power  to  sanction  or  reject  the  same,  and  he  suggested  that  the 
chief  officers  of  the  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geological  Surveys,  and  of 
the  weather  bureau,  might  appropriately  be  made  a  part  of  that 
commission. 

The  proposition  of  General  Goodwill  was  laid  before  Con- 
gress in  a  special  message,  and  after  due  consideration,  the 
President  was  authorized  to  appoint  such  a  commission  as  the 
General  had  requested.  The  General  laid  his  plans  before  the 
commission,  which,  after  considering  them  for  about  a  month, 
during  which  time  he  was  frequently  called  before  it,  in  order 
to  explain  and  elucidate  certain  points,  with  some  slight  modi- 


26  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

fications  his  proposition  was  accepted,  and  he  was  authorized 
to  employ  the  army  as  he  desired. 

In  accordance  with  the  program  thus  adopted,  imme- 
diately following  this  step  came  an  act  of  Congress,  which  had 
been  called  in  special  session  for  that  purpose,  withdrawing 
from  sale  all  desert,  forest  or  mineral  lands  lying  west  of  the 
Minnesota,  Iowa,  Missouri,  Arkansas,  and  Louisiana  state 
lines,  and  repealing  all  laws  providing  for  the  sale  or  alienation 
of  government  lands  in  so  far  as  they  applied  to  the  territory 
designated.  This  bill  was  signed  by  the  President  and  took 
effect  immediately. 

As  soon  as  this  measure  had  become  a  law,  in  October, 
1913,  a  force  of  1,000  surveyors  and  engineers,  officered  by 
young  graduates  of  West  Point,  was  sent  to  Salt  Lake  City, 
Utah,  to  act  under  the  direction  of  the  U.  S.  Geological  Sur- 
vey, to  whose  chief  the  commanding  officer  was  directed  to 
report  for  orders. 

The  purpose  of  this  expedition  was  to  make  topographical 
surveys,  supplementary  to  work  previously  done  by  the  geo- 
logical survey  in  the  states  of  Utah,  Nevada,  Wyoming,  New 
Mexico  and  Arizona,  such  that  by  their  aid  dams  and  irrigating 
canals  could  be  located  and  constructed  to  the  best  advantage 
on  the  streams  tributary  to  the  Colorado  river  and  elsewhere 
in  the  region  designated  ;  to  report  the  character  of  the  ground, 
and  timber  where  it  existed,  and  also  to  note  and  report  the 
location  of  all  out-cropping  mineral  deposits  and  rock  forma- 
tions. 

Another  force  of  500  surveyors  and  engineers  was  at 
the  same  time  sent  to  Los  Angeles  to  make  a  similar  survey  of 
Southern  California  from  the  Pacific  coast  to  the  Colorado 
river.     This  force  was  to  act  imder  the  direction  of  the  Coast 


Conditions   Prevailing   in    191 3.  27 

Survey,  and  was  required  to  plat  the  whole  region  with  great 
minuteness,  especially  with  regard  to  altitudes. 

These  preliminary  measures  having  been  taken,  the  world 
was  treated  to  a  novelty  in  the  following  general  order : 

"To  the  army  of  the  United  States.  Soldiers :  You  are 
now  in  the  happy  condition  of  having  no  human  enemy,  nor 
any  probability  of  an  enemy.  Nevertheless,  conditions  are  such 
that  to  disband  you  could  not  fail  to  produce  intolerable  evils 
both  to  yourselves  and  to  the  people  among  whom  you  would 
be  scattered.  In  view  of  this  situation  the  administration  has 
determined  to  utilize  your  energies  in  the  conquest  of  nature, 
so  far  as  nature  remains  unfriendly  to  man. 

'Tn  pursuit  of  this  object,  you  are  to  be  employed  in  the 
construction  of  works,  greater  than  anything  hitherto 
attempted  by  man,  for  the  purpose  of  turning  deserts  into 
gardens ;  at  the  same  time  you  are  to  be  so  distributed,  and 
your  energies  are  to  be  so  employed,  that  you  will,  as  a  whole, 
at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  become  entirely  self-support- 
ing. Hitherto  the  work  of  armies  has  been  destruction,  hence- 
forth your  work  will  be  construction,  and  with  this  change  of 
purpose  it  is  confidently  believed  that  a  better  era  for  mankind 
has  dawned. 

"Fearing  no  enemy  to  destroy,  your  camps  under  the  new 
order  will  assume  the  character  of  towns,  constantly  improving 
in  beauty  and  convenience. 

"Your  remuneration  will,  as  rapidly  as  it  is  possible  to 
make  it  so  without  calling  on  others  to  provide  it  for  you,  be 
made  to  approximate  a  good  livelihood,  and  for  merit  and 
ability  you  may  expect  promotion.  Pending  active  operations, 
you  will  receive  instructions  in  the  use  of  machinery,  while 
your  military  drill  will  be  limited  to  your  orderly  movements 
about  your  camps  and  to  and  from  your  instructions. 

Signed,     Theodore  Goodwili., 

General  commanding." 

This  order  was  received  with  great  enthusiasm  both  by 
the  army  and  the  people. 


28  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

Preliminary  reports  from  the  field  enabled  General  Good- 
will to  place  10,000  quarrymen  and  stone  cutters  at  work  in 
eastern  Utah  that  same  autumn,  railway  connections  being 
made  with  the  Union  Pacific  line  to  the  camps  in  order  to 
secure  them  against  any  failure  of  supplies.  Machinery  was 
already  waiting  for  their  use. 

An  order  was  issued  that  the  colonels  of  the  several  regi- 
ments should  call  for  ten  volunteers  out  of  each  company  for 
this  service.  This  called  out  about  54,000  men,  from  whom, 
after  examination,  the  required  number  of  men,  such  as  were 
likely  to  make  the  most  effective  workmen,  were  selected  and 
sent  forward  to  the  work. 

Another  ten  thousand  selected  in  a  similar  manner  were 
sent  forward  within  a  week,  to  be  employed  in  camp  and  rail- 
road construction.  It  being  known  among  the  soldiers  that 
steam  excavators,  wire  cable  carriers,  and  other  machinery, 
the  most  powerful  in  existence  for  the  purpose,  would  be  the 
means  by  which  as  much  as  possible  of  the  required  work 
would  be  done,  to  be  selected  and  sent  on  one  of  these  earlier 
expeditions  was  deemed  an  honor  much  to  be  desired. 

During  the  fall  and  winter  following,  special  instruction 
was  given  to  the  soldiers  who  remained  in  the  camps  and  bar- 
racks, not  only  in  the  use  of  machinery  and  the  technical  arts 
in  general,  but  in  their  application  to  the  special  lines  in  which 
it  was  anticipated  that  the  services  of  selected  forces  would 
soon  be  needed,  and  special  aptitudes  were  noted  and  culti- 
vated. In  this  manner  men  were  selected  for  several  lines  of 
special  service,  a  body  of  20,000  iron  workers  among  others, 
being  put  under  instruction  and  training  for  the  various  arts 
required  in  smelting,  casting,  rolling  and  manufacturing  the 
varied  forms  of  iron,  and  the  machinery  that  is  built  from  it, 
but  for  which  we  should,  today,  be  as  feeble  in  our  power  to 


Conditions   Prevailing    in    1913.  29 

create  wealth  and  transform  the  world  as  they  were  in  the 
middle  ages. 

As  soon  as  the  melting-  of  the  winter  snows  would  permit 
work  in  the  field  of  operations,  other  men  were  hurried  for- 
ward. Ten  thousand  men  with  the  machinery  for  making  their 
work  most  effective,  for  the  purpose  of  grading  and  excavating 
irrigating  canals,  and  one  thousand  brick  makers,  with  the 
machinery  needed  in  their  art,  to  provide  material  for  building 
the  great  iron  works,  which  were  so  urgently  needed,  were  the 
first  force  sent  forward  in  the  spring  of  1914.  These  were 
quickly  followed  by  others,  imtil,  before  the  middle  of  May,[for| 
miles  along  the  line  laid  out  for  the  construction  of  the  main 
irrigating  canal,  steam  excavators  were  puffing  and  scraping 
at  intervals  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  a  railway  track  was  graded 
and  built  along  its  upper  border,  and  cable  carriers  for  remov- 
ing the  earth  were  beaded  with  great  buckets  moving  out  with 
their  loads  and  returning  empty  to  the  excavators,  while  at  each 
rocky  point  the  quick  hammering  of  power  drills  deafened  the 
ear,  and  at  every  ravine  and  hollow  aqueducts  of  stone  were 
in  process  of  building.  A  hundred  ample  forces  of  men  were 
at  the  same  time  employed  at  a  hundred  correlated  tasks,  and 
before  the  first  of  June  more  than  200,000  men  were  cfYectively 
employed  in  the  field  of  these  initial  operations. 
J  This  season  the  greater  portion  of  the  force  employed  was 
concentrated  near  the  junction  of  the  Uintah  river  with  the 
Green  river  in  northeastern  Utah.  The  main  irrigating  canal 
was  here  laid  out  in  a  course  extending  generally  from  east  to 
west  along  a  line  coinciding  with  the  altitude  of  5,462  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  sea,  cutting  ofif  a  V-shaped  peninsula  of 
land,  below  that  level,  lying  between  the  canyon  of  the  Green 
river  and  that  of  the  Uintah. 


30  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

The  distance  from  the  canal  due  south  to  the  point  of  the 
V  was  about  twelve  miles,  while  that  from  the  eastern  limit  of 
the  tract  on  the  border  of  the  canal  to  the  bank  of  the  Uintah 
on  the  west  was  about  sixteen  miles ;  the  entire  tract  comprised 
about  100  square  miles  of  land,  and  this  was  the  area  which  it 
was  proposed  to  irrigate  and  sow  with  wheat  this  first  season. 

On  the  other,  or  north  side  of  the  canal,  the  ground  rises 
with  a  somewhat  steeper  inclination  to  the  foot  of  a  terrace 
which  lies  at  a  distance  from  the  canal  varying  from  one  mile 
at  the  eastern  border  of  the  tract  chosen  for  the  first  season's 
irrigation  to  four  miles  at  its  western  limit.  The  top  of  this 
terrace  generally  coincides  with  the  level  of  six  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea,  the  territory  above  its  escarpment  forming  a 
nearly  level  plateau  about  four  miles  wide  extending  to  the 
foot  of  the  Uintah  mountains. 

On  this  plateau  above  the  six  thousand  feet  level,  it  was 
determined  to  build  the  city ;  the  temporary  camps,  however, 
were  laid  out  on  the  slope  between  the  foot  of  the  terrace  and 
the  canal. 

The  course  of  this  canal  was  laid  out  with  the  view  ulti- 
mately to  collect  the  waters  of  the  Green  river  and  its 
tributaries,  but  the  works  required  to  accomplish  that  end  were 
so  great  as  necessarily  to  occupy  several  years.  The  north 
fork  of  the  Uintah  alone,  however,  offered  an  ample  supply  of 
water  for  this  season's  field  of  irrigation,  and  the  work  was  so 
ordered  as  to  utilize  that  stream  for  the  purpose. 


The   Field   of   Operations   Described.  31 


CHAPTER  II. 

Let  us  take  a  look  at  the  region  which  has  become  the 
seat  of  these  various  operations,  while  it  is  yet  unchanged  by 
the  hand  of  man. 

The  country  here  lies  high  and  bare.  Ranged  along  on  the 
north  are  the  towering  peaks  of  the  Uintah  mountains,  some 
of  them  snow-capped  all  the  year.  To  the  westward  the  Wah- 
satch  range  bounds  the  horizon.  To  the  southward,  across  the 
slope  of  land  chosen  for  irrigation  and  beyond  the  united  can- 
yons of  the  Green,  the  Uintah,  and  the  White  rivers,  but  ap- 
pearing very  near,  rises  a  mountainous  swell  stretching  down 
from  the  Wahsatch  range  on  the  west  and  reaching  the  Rocky 
mountains  in  Colorado  on  the  east,  but  broken  in  the  middle 
by  a  notch  through  which  the  Green  River  canyon  passes 
toward  the  south.  Through  this  notch,  dim  and  azure  in  the 
distance,  can  be  seen  the  peaks  of  the  mountains  through 
which  the  grand  canyon  of  the  Colorado  cuts  its  way.  The 
eastern  horizon  is  broken  by  the  great  peaks  of  the  Rocky 
mountains.  The  land  near  by  lies  in  long  gently  undulating 
slopes,  too  arid  for  agriculture,  with  here  and  there  a  scattering 
growth  of  bunch  grass  which  pushes  forth  in  the  spring  and 
then  drying  where  it  grows,  affords  a  thin  picking  of  natural 
hay  on  which  the  buftalocs  used  to  live.  Of  other  vegetation 
there  was  the  onmipresent  sage  bush,  and  a  few  other  hardy 
shrubs;  other  plants  were  there  also,  of  many  kinds,  but  mostly 
so  inconspicuous  that  the  careless  eye  was  apt  to  overlook 
them,  and  one  needed  to  be  something  of  a  botanist  to  see  them 
all ;  with  all  these  plants,  however,  the  arid  barrenness  of  the 
earth  was  scarcely  relieved. 


32  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

These  slopes  and  terraces  are  cut  at  intervals  by  deep 
ravines  in  which  flow  the  streams  which,  coming  down  from 
the  mountains  all  about,  unite  to  form  the  Green  river,  and 
this,  uniting-  with  atiother  similar  stream  gathered  farther  east 
in  the  mountains  of  Colorado,  forms  the  great  Colorado  river. 

The  great  peaks  of  the  Uintah  mountains  on  the  north, 
towering  a  mile  and  a  half  above  the  level  of  the  canal,  seem 
close  by,  though  their  distance  is  from  thirty  to  sixty  miles 
away.  These  peaks  themselves  are  but  pinnacles  of  the  crest 
of  a  great  rugged  swell  forming  the  whole  mountain  group. 
In  mountains  there  are  two  sites  of  greatest  ruggedness,  first 
the  ravines  at  their  bases  and  second  the  peaks  and  crests  at 
their  summits,  the  middle  heights  are  usually  smoother  ground, 
but  there  is  very  little  of  this  state  of  Utah  below  the  altitude 
of  5,000  feet.  In  these  Uintah  mountains  in  rain  and  snow 
much  more  water  falls  than  on  the  lower  levels,  three  times 
as  much  or  more.  Great  works  are  required  to  utilize  it,  but 
when  the  works  are  built  there  is  water  enough  for  irrigation 
and  for  power.  There  is  timber,  too,  in  these  mountain  ravines 
and  valleys,  though  timber  is  a  scarcity  in  this  region. 

This  is  a  picturesque  country,  gloriously  so  in  its  land- 
scapes. The  distant  mountains  appear  in  colors  more  brilliant, 
clear  and  beautiful  than  are  ever  seen  at  lower  altitudes  and  in 
more  humid  regions,  the  color  varying  with  the  distance,  the 
time  of  the  day,  and  the  condition  of  the  atmosphere.  The 
most  distant  points  are  of  the  faintest  blue,  scarcely  distinguish- 
able from  the  sky  above  them  ;  on  the  nearer  peaks  and  ranges 
the  colors  deepen  into  purple,  indigo  and  blue ;  on  the  shady 
sides  and  the  ravines  of  the  mountains,  especially  at  distances 
of  from  forty  to  sixty  miles,  these  colors  are  often  of  the  rich- 
est and  most  delightful  tints  imaginable.  Nearer  than  this  the 
earth  tints  modify  the  colors.    The  nearer  peaks  and  mountain 


The  Field   of   Operations  Described.  33 

walls  are  mostly  dark,  but  where  the  light  reflects  to  the  eye 
they  show  something  of  the  color  of  the  rocks,  slate  color,  red- 
dish brown,  occasionally  a  patch  or  seam  of  white,  but  every- 
where overspread  with  a  bluish  haze.  Even  looking  down 
from  a  mountain  height  into  a  valley  at  your  feet,  or  up  from 
that  valley  to  the  nearest  height,  gives  distance  enough  for 
this. 

Yet  it  takes  some  time  for  a  newcomer  from  the  east  to 
get  his  mind  adjusted  to  the  new  scale  of  distances  that  is  here 
spread  before  his  eye.  Ten  miles  here  appears  scarcely  equal 
to  one  as  he  has  known  it  elsewhere,  and  if  he  mounts  a  horse 
for  a  journey  the  earth  seems  to  run  under  him  like  a  treadmill 
while  he  makes  no  progress.  Even  a  railway  train  may  run 
all  day  approaching  and  rounding  some  prominent  mountain 
group  which  vanishes  from  sight  in  the  rear  of  the  train  as 
night  closes  in  on  the  scene,  and  the  traveler  can  scarcely 
realize  that  he  has  during  the  day  covered  more  than  a  decent 
day's  drive  for  a  horse  and  buggy.  The  apparent  extent  of  a 
tract  of  territory  depends  on  how  many  times  it  contains  what 
can  be  seen  at  once,  and  judged  by  this  test  the  territory  of 
New  Mexico,  though  it  contains  about  four  times  as  many 
square  miles  as  all  Ohio,  is  not  equal  in  apparent  magnitude 
to  the  smallest  Ohio  county.  But  let  us  not  wander  from  the 
scene  of  our  story. 

The  plains  and  terraces  of  this  region  are  varied  by  the 
mesas — the  Spanish  for  tables.  These  are  flat-topped  eleva- 
tions bordered  by  abrupt  declivities.  They  look  like  remnants 
of  a  former  higher  level  of  the  earth,  which  they  are,  for  some 
cause  left  unfinished  when  the  general  level  of  the  country  was 
graded  down  two,  or  three,  or  five  hundred  feet.  Some  of 
these  mesas  have  been  whittled  away  at  their  bases  until  they 


34  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

have  become  peaks,  and  of  others  there  are  mere  stumps  left, 
rocky  warts  on  the  otherwise  smooth  surface  of  the  earth. 

These  features  give  variety  to  the  nearer  view,  but  in  spite 
of  the  beauty  of  the  landscape,  the  foreground  looks  dry  and 
barren  and  dreary.  All  the  water  comes  from  the  mountains 
and  runs  in  the  canyons ;  the  surface  of  the  earth  is  not 
refreshed  by  it. 

*  Excepting  for  the  scarcity  of  water  on  these  plateaus  from 
5,000  to  6,000  feet  above  the  sea,  the  climate  is  well  adapted 
to  wheat,  and  the  grains,  grasses  and  fruits  of  the  northern 
latitudes  of  the  United  States.  There  is  a  sharp  winter  here, 
but  with  water  enough  in  the  canyons  to  irrigate  the  earth, 
with .  power  enough  in  the  streams  for  every  use,  labor  and 
skill  only  were  needed  to  utilize  these  resources  in  order  to 
make  a  garden  of  this  desert.  Hence  its  choice  as  the  first 
field  of  operations  designed  to  make  the  army  self-supporting 
while  engaged  in  other  and  greater  world  improvements. 

Before  the  first  days  of  summer  had  come,  the  great  iron 
works  were  ready  to  begin  operations,  abundant  deposits  of 
excellent  iron  ore  had  been  discovered  and  mines  had  been 
opened,  and  on  the  coal  lands,  of  which  in  Colorado  and 
Wyoming  there  were  thousands  of  square  miles  yet  belonging 
to  the  government,  with  unlimited  quantities  of  the  finest  coal, 
preparations  were  making  to  secure  an  ample  supply  of  coal  for 
all  purposes.  Railways  were  constructed  to  connect  these  iron 
and  coal  mines  with  the  new  iron  works  and  with  the  world, 
and  by  the  end  of  June  200,000  more  of  the  army  were  provided 
with  employment  in  this  Utah  field,  or  a  little  more  than 
400,000  men  all  told. 

In  coal  and  iron  mining,  however,  the  army  was  not 
employed.  For  many  years  the  coal  miners  of  the  United 
States  had  lived  in  the  most  extreme  and  degrading  poverty, 


The  Field   of   Operations   Described.  35 

their  pay  insufficient  to  support  a  civilized  life,  and  with  an- 
army  of  unemployed  at  all  times  among  them.  The  military 
authorities  now  saw  an  opportunity  to  make  an  end  of  this 
distress.  A  sufficient  number  of  enlisted  men  was  sent  to  the 
sites  where  coal  mines  were  to  be  opened  to  establish  camps 
there  in  the  form  of  tasteful  villages  of  neat  and  convenient 
houses,  with  sewers  and  waterworks  and  every  sanitary  re- 
quirement supplied,  also  with  schoolhouses  and  lecture  rooms 
and  everything  needful  for  the  mental  and  moral  upbuilding  of 
their  people,  and  then  the  following  advertisement  was  pub- 
lished in  all  the  coal  mining  districts  of  the  United  States : 

WANTED : 

Coal  miners,  to  operate  mines  connected  with  the  works 
now  in  progress  by  the  military  forces  of  the  United  States. 

Coal  miners  accepted  for  employment  under  this  call  will 
be  required  to  work  but  eight  hours  per  day,  and  their  com- 
pensation will  be  sufficient  to  secure  to  them  and  their  families 
a  good  living  with  a  pension  for  their  support  when  disabled 
by  sickness  or  accident  or  old  age.  Houses,  clothing,  food, 
and  educational  privileges  for  themselves  and  their  children, 
will  be  provided  by  the  government,  and  they  with  their 
families  will  be  enrolled,  not  as  a  part  of  the  army,  but  as  citizen 
tenantry  of  the  United  States. 

They  will  have  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  free  citizens, 
electing  their  own  municipal  and  civil  officers  and  conducting 
their  public  affairs  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  land ;  the 
United  States  will  simply  be  their  landlord  and  their  employer. 

An  office  for  the  examination  and  enrollment  of  applicants 
was  opened  wherever  such  an  office  was  needed  and  to  such  as 
were  accepted,  transportation  was  furnished  for  themselves  and 
their  families  to  the  places  where  they  were  wanted.  Of  course, 
there  was  no  difficulty  in  securing  the  services  of  as  many  men 
as  were  required. 


36  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

This  measure  was  taken  in  May,  1914.  The  iron  mines, 
also,  were  manned  in  precisely  the  same  manner. 

At  this  measure,  of  course,  the  wrath  of  the  coal  and  iron 
mining  capitalists  knew  no  bounds.  They  tried  to  avail  them- 
selves of  their  old  time  refuge  in  the  courts  by  inducing  a  judge 
to  declare  the  new  policy  unconstitutional  on  the  ground  that 
it  destroyed  the  value  of  their  property  without  compensation, 
but  they  soon  learned  that  the  operations  of  the  army  of  the 
United  States  were  not  to  be  prevented  by  the  mandate  of  a 
judge,  even  though  they  had  made  and  owned  the  whole 
supreme  court,  and  the  judges  knew  better  than  to  try  it.  They 
tried  to  avail  themselves  of  the  power  which  so  often  in  the 
past  had  served  them  to  crush  a  rival  through  their  other  selves, 
the  railroad  companies,  by  charging  ruinous  rates  for  trans- 
portation, or  by  professing  inability  to  provide  cars  where  and 
when  they  were  needed,  but  the  railway  companies  were  noti- 
fied that  if  they  did  not  render  the  services  required  of  them  at 
reasonable  rates  the  government  would  seize  and  operate  the 
roads.  The  privately  owned  railways,  however,  did  not  run  to 
the  points  where  the  coal  was  mined,  nor  to  where  it  was 
needed ;  there  the  government  was  building  its  own  railways 
as  well  as  working  its  own  mines.  They  tried  to  discourage 
the  government  in  its  new  policy  by  ruinous  competition,  so 
as  to  give  the  ofBcials  a  pretext  to  say,  as  of  old  they  were 
always  ready  to  say,  that  public  coal  mining  did  not  pay,  since 
private  enterprise  was  producing  cheaper  than  the  government 
could  mine  it,  but  the  officials  were  not  now  so  blind  and 
idiotic  as,  for  a  consideration,  officials  used  to  be,  and  the 
government  mining  went  on. 

To  hold  their  miners  the  coal  mining  companies  were 
now  under  the  necessity  of  giving  them  a  much  better  liveli- 
hood than  coal  miners  had  ever  before  been  able  to  obtain,  and 


The  Field   of   Operations   Described.  37 

in  the  course  of  the  new  competition  the  wages  of  miners  went 
up  and  the  price  of  coal  went  down  until  there  was  no  profit 
left  for  dividends,  and  when  it  became  evident  that  the  new 
army  policy  was  to  be  permanent,  capitalists  began  to  with- 
draw from  coal  mining  and  whole  districts  were  abandoned  by 
their  owners.  The  value  of  coal  lands  sank  to  nothing,  and 
many  of  the  most  important  fields  were  allowed  to  relapse  into 
public  ownership  through  the  nonpayment  of  taxes ;  but  as 
fast  as  miners  were  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the  with- 
drawal of  capital  they  were  re-employed  in  the  government 
mines.  In  this  way  the  degrading  poverty  that  had  so  long 
been  associated  with  a  coal  miner's  life  was  done  away  with. 

But  for  the  fact  that  the  capitalists  had  been  enemies  of 
the  new  policy  from  the  beginning,  these  developments  had,  of 
course,  made  enemies  of  them  by  the  thousands,  but  where 
thousands  of  the  rich  had  become  bitter  and  irreconcilable 
enemies,  the  new  policy  had  made  millions  of  friends  among 
the  masses  from  whom  the  rich  had  formerly  drawn  their  sub- 
stance. It  soon  became  evident  to  the  millions  that  the  former 
value  of  the  property  of  these  mine  owners  had  consisted 
simply  in  their  power  to  oppress  their  employees  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  consumers  of  their  products  on  the  other,  thus 
making  the  oppression  universal. 


38  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  Utah  field  of  operations,  wherever  on 
any  special  piece  of  work  there  was  need  of  hurry,  ample  force 
was  detailed  to  hurry  it.  As  we  have  seen,  before  the  end  of 
June  there  were  more  than  400,000  men  employed  there  exclu- 
sive of  the  coal  and  iron  miners  who  were  drawn  from  civil  life. 
By  the  first  of  July  the  great  smelting  furnaces  were  pouring 
forth  iron  in  enormous  quantities,  and  simultaneously  with  the 
smelters  other  departments  were  set  in  operation  to  utilize  the 
product  before  it  had  time  to  cool.  There  was  the  Bessemer 
steel  department  with  its  converters  and  rolling  mills  producing 
structural  steel,  which  at  this  time  was  largely  employed  for 
spanning  ravines  and  canyons  with  aqueducts  and  bridges,  and 
steel  rails,  and  tempered  rods  which  were  passed  on  to  the  wire 
mills  and  manufactured  mostly  into  steel  wire  cables  which  in 
lengths  of  a  little  more  than  a  mile  were  wound  on  reels  and 
stored  for  use  a  little  later.  There  was  also  the  branch  pro- 
during  steel  in  forms  suitable  for  the  manufacture  of  machinery 
and  tools  and  implements,  and  the  machine  shops  where  all  the 
various  kinds  of  machinery  required,  especially  dynamos,  were 
manufactvired.  But  the  greatest  department  of  all  in  these 
great  iron  works  was  the  pipe  foundry.  This  was  greater  than 
all  other  pipe  foundries  in  the  world  taken  together.  Its  task 
was  to  produce  more  than  220  miles  of  great  water  mains 
within  ten  weeks. 

The  first  lot  of  pipe  was  cast  immediately  after  the  fourth 
of  July,  1914,  and  there  were,  as  there  was  need  to  be,  many 
miles  of  great  pipe  produced  at  a  casting.  The  slag  from  the 
smelting  furnaces,  also,  was  drawn  oft  into  moulds  and  con- 


The  Iron    Works   Equipped.  39 

verted  into  such  forms  as  would  make  it  most  useful.  These 
and  all  other  fixed  industries  were  each  located  according  to  a 
general  plan  adopted  in  the  beginning  of  operations,  which  may- 
be understood  from  the  map  accompanying  the  next  chapter. 
The  permanent  camp  or  city  site  was  on  the  terrace  above  the 
6,000  feet  level.  Radiating  through  a  center  chosen  in  this  city 
site,  four  main  avenues  were  located,  one  in  the  meridian  line 
through  that  center,  another  at  right  angles  with  this,  while 
the  other  two  bisected  the  quadrants  along  the  lines  from 
northeast  to  southwest,  and  from  southeast  to  northwest. 

The  industrial  works  were  planned  to  occupy  a  portion  of 
the  tract  below  the  city  terrace  but  above  the  irrigating  canal, 
and  the  section  of  this  tract  lying  between  the  western  con- 
tinuation of  the  avenue  extending  directly  westward  from  the 
proposed  city  center  and  the  southwest  avenue,  was  devoted  to ' 
that  purpose.  This  section  bounded  by  the  foot  of  the  city 
terrace,  the  avenues  mentioned,  the  irrigating  canal  and  the 
Uintah  river  canyon,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  map,  comprises 
an  area  equal  to  half  a  township,  or  eighteen  square  miles.  On 
this  tract  near  the  border  of  the  canal  and  extending  along  the 
southwest  avenue  the  iron  works  were  located,  and  other 
industries  in  such  relation  to  these  and  the  contemplated  city 
as  would  give  the  greatest  economy  in  their  working.  The 
temporary  camps  lay  on  the  same  side  of  the  canal,  to  the  east- 
ward of  the  industrial  tract,  between  the  southwest  and  the 
southeast  avenues. 

The  irrigating  canal,  until  near  the  middle  of  August, 
remained  a  dry  excavation  with  a  railway  track  along  its  upper 
or  northern  side.  The  works  preparatory  to  the  irrigation  and 
sowing  with  wheat  of  the  triangle  of  land  lying  south  of  this 
canal  and  included  between  the  Green  river  canyon  on  the 
east  and  that  of  the  Uintah  river  on  the  west  at  this  time  occu- 


40  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

pied  a  large  proportion  of  the  force  employed  in  this  region. 
The  most  conspicuous  of  these  works  was  an  aqueduct  extend- 
ing directly  south  from  the  canal  to  the  southern  point  of  the 
peninsula  in  such  a  manner  that  it  divided  the  distance  between 
the  two  canyons  as  nearly  equally  as  possible.  The  length  of 
this  aqueduct  is  a  fraction  over  twelve  miles.  It  was  designed 
to  hold  the  water  at  an  elevation  of  from  25  to  75  feet  above 
the  land  to  be  irrigated  from  it,  and  to  serve  as  a  reservoir  of 
still  water  as  well  as  a  channel  to  carry  a  stream,  but  in  the 
course  of  its  twelve  miles  of  length  the  land  sinks  away  to  a 
level  more  than  400  feet  below  that  of  the  canal. 

This  diflficulty  was  overcome  by  building  the  aqueduct  in 
distinct  sections :  The  first  section,  to  hold  water  on  the  same 
level  as  that  in  the  canal,  extends  southward  until  the  land  has 
so  fallen  away  that  the  height  of  the  aqueduct  is  fifty  feet. 
Here  a  new  section  begins,  25  feet  below  the  level  of  the 
first;  this  continues  in  the  same  line,  until,  as  before,  its 
height  is  50  feet.  In  the  same  manner  each  section  is  succeeded 
by  another  at  a  level  25  feet  below  the  preceding,  until  the 
lowest  level  is  reached  at  the  border  of  the  canyon.  This 
aqueduct  is  built  of  cut  stone,  on  arches,  in  a  style  equal  to  the 
best  of  Roman  workmanship ;  it  carries  a  volume  of  water  ten 
feet  wide  by  seven  feet  deep,  and  each  section  opens  into  the 
next  below  by  an  automatic  valve  gate  controlled  by  a  float  on 
the  lower  section.  For  three  miles  from  its  point  of  departure 
from  the  main  canal,  this  aqueduct  is  not  designed  to  discharge 
any  water,  but  beyond  that  point  it  is  fitted  with  discharge 
gates  opening  into  stand-pipes  at  intervals  of  half  a  mile.  In 
building  this  aqueduct  the  work  was  going  on  throughout  its 
entire  length  at  the  same  time,  a  railway  track  having  been 
constructed  to  carry  the  stone  from  the  quarries  in  the  begin- 
ning;  thus  the  entire  structure  was  completed  within  six  weeks 


The  Iron    Works   Equipped.  41 

from  the  time  it  was  beg-un,  and  that  without  any  particular 
hurry. 

The  land  for  irrigation  was  laid  out  on  each  side  of  this 
aqueduct,  beginning  at  the  point  where  the  discharge  gates 
and  stand  pipes  begin,  in  sections  half  a  mile  wide,  at  right 
angles  with  the  aqueduct  and  extending  to  the  canyon  borders 
in  either  direction. 

Along  the  lines  of  division  between  these  sections  water 
pipes  of  18,  24  or  30  inches  in  diameter,  according  to  the  area 
of  land  to  be  supplied  from  each  pipe,  were  laid  on  beds  of 
masonry,  and  above  these  pipes  strongly  mounted  in  the  same 
structure  of  stone,  pulley  shafts  were  placed,  and  all  connected 
with  motor  dynamos.  This  whole  arrangement  was  covered 
with  sheds  and  an  electric  railway  track  was  constructed  along 
the  front  of  each  shed. 

When  these  water  mains  were  laid  they  were  fitted  at 
intervals  of  300  feet  with  plugs  for  four  inch  hose,  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  of  such  hose  to  each  plug  was  provided  and  stored  in 
the  power  sheds  where  it  was  wanted. 

The  land  irrigated  from  this  aqueduct  is  bounded  on  the 
north  by  a  straight  east  and  west  line  drawn  through  the  point 
where  the  first  outlet  gate  was  constructed,  three  miles  from 
the  point  of  departure  of  the  aqueduct  from  the  canal.  Between 
this  line  and  the  canal  is  a  tract  varying  in  breadth  from  a  little 
less  than  three  miles  to  five  and  a  half  miles.  This  was  laid  out 
in  similar  one-half-mile  sections,  equipped  with  water  mains 
and  power  shafts  in  the  same  manner  as  those  irrigated  from 
the  aqueduct,  but  at  right  angles  to  them,  that  is  with  the  divi- 
sion lines  and  power  sheds  running  north  and  south. 

This  portion  of  the  tract,  which  receives  water  directly 
from  the  canal,  is  greater  in  area  by  one-half  than  that  watered 
from  the  aqueduct.     The  portion  of  the  canal  to  be  finished 


42  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

this  year  was  limited  to  a  section  18  miles  long,  beginning 
at  the  point  of  its  nearest  approach  to  the  Green  river  canyon 
just  east  of  the  tract  to  be  irrigated  and  terminating  at  the 
passage  of  the  north  branch  of  the  Uintah  river  on  the  west. 
At  this  point,  a  substantial  dam,  of  cut  stone  laid  in  cement, 
and  founded  on  the  bed  rock,  was  built  to  retain  the  water  to 
the  height  of  the  canal,  87  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  stream.. 
This  forms  a  fine  storage  reservoir  for  the  canal. 

This  north  fork  of  the  Uintah  comes  down  by  nearly  the 
shortest  possible  course  from  the  highest  parts  of  the  Uintah 
mountains ;  its  course  lies  mostly  through  a  wild  ravine  with  a 
succession  of  cataracts  and  cascades  and  rapids  throughout  its 
entire  length.  At  a  point  about  20  miles  up  the  stream 
from  the  storage  reservoir,  near  the  9,000  feet  altitude  line, 
there  is,  however,  a  length  of  nearly  two  miles  in  which  the 
total  fall  is  not  more  than  20  feet.  At  the  foot  of  this  level 
reach,  the  bed  rock  was  cleared  of  earth  and  mortised  to  receive 
the  foundation  of  a  massive  dam  of  cut  stone  which  was  built 
across  the  ravine  and  carried  to  the  height  of  75  feet. 
This  formed  a  lake  two  miles  long  by  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
wide  in  which  all  sediment  subsides  leaving  the  water  perfectly 
clear,  an  ideal  source  of  supply  for  the  future  city.  From  this 
reservoir  the  water  is  conducted  down  the  descent  of  3,600  feet 
to  the  storage  reservoir  of  the  canal  by  nearly  level  reaches 
alternating  with  steep  descents  of  from  50  to  75  feet  at  a  leap ; 
at  which  points  power  stations  were  constructed. 

On  the  west  and  larger  fork  of  the  Uintah  another  dam 
and  feeding  reservoir  was  also  constructed.  This  dam  is  22 
miles  west  of  the  storage  reservoir  which  is  on  the  north 
fork,  and  just  below  the  confluence  of  an  important  tributary 
with  the  west  fork,  but  its  altitude  is  only  about  500  feet  above 
that  of  the  storage  reservoir.    This  68  feet  dam  in  fact  lifts  the 


The  Iron    Works   Equipped. 


43 


The  Iron    Works   Equipped.  45 

water  just  to  the  6,000  feet  level,  where  it  forms  a  fine  forked 
lake,  one  arm  of  which  is  five  miles  long  and  the  other  three 
and  a  half.  From  this  reservoir  the  water  is  conducted  through 
a  feeding  canal  which  closely  follows  the  6,000  feet  contour 
line  allowing  only  about  one  and  a  half  feet  fall  per  mile.  This 
secondary  canal  also  intercepts  several  smaller  tributaries 
along  its  course ;  it  is  constructed  to  have  a  width  of  25  feet  on 
the  bottom  and  to  carry  a  depth  of  from  six  to  eight  feet  of 
water.  This  channel  makes  available  for  irrigation  a  fine  tract 
of  land  that  lies  above  the  level  of  the  main  canal.  When  it 
approaches  the  north  fork  there  is  a  fall  of  about  500  feet,  over 
which  the  waters  are  conducted  before  they  reach  the  storage 
reservoir  and  the  main  canal.  To  effect  this  descent  the  water 
is  carried  from  one  level  to  another  through  power  stations 
similar  to  those  on  the  north  fork. 

A  few  of  the  many  other  works  in  progress  should  be 
mentioned.  The  quarrying  and  cutting  of  stone  was,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  very  first  undertaken.  Just  above  the  storage 
reservoir,  on  the  north  fork  of  the  Uintah,  where,  going  up 
the  stream  the  cascades  began,  is  the  outcropping  of  an  im- 
mense deposit  of  hard,  grey  sandstone,  thick  bedded  in  hori- 
zontal strata.  Here  the  quarries  were  started  in  the  beginning, 
and  here  the  stone  was  cut  and  prepared  for  the  reservoir  dam, 
for  the  aqueduct,  and  for  the  many  other  uses  for  which  much 
was  needed  in  preparing  all  these  works  and  building  the 
future  city.  For  the  dam  forming  the  high  level  reservoir 
suitable  stone  was  quarried  in  the  mountains  above. 

Railway  tracks,  adapted  for  steam  locomotives  at  first,  but 
ultimately  to  be  operated  by  electric  power,  were  built  to  con- 
nect these  quarries  with  all  other  works.  This  was  very  neces- 
sary, since  horse  power  was  used  in  the  very  earliest  prepara- 


46  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

lions  only,  and  very  little  then.  In  great  works  horse  power 
is  very  expensive. 

The  railway  up  the  north  fork  of  the  Uintah  to  the  high 
level  reservoir  was  made  double  tracked  to  operate  as  a  gravity 
road,  the  cars  being  attached  to  a  cable  passing  over  a  drum, 
loaded  cars  coming  down  drawing  the  empty  ones  iback. 
Along  the  course  of  this  gravity  line  are  the  lime  kilns  and  the 
cement  works,  for  which  abundant  material  exists  along  the 
way.  On  the  tract  devoted  to  industries,  just  north  of  the  iron 
works  and  extending  to  the  canal,  about  two  square  miles  of 
clay  land  was  reserved  for  brick,  tile,  and  architectural  terra 
cotta  works.  On  southwest  avenue,  between  the  iron  works 
and  the  city  terrace,  are  the  machine  shops,  the  hose  factory, 
the  coal  depot,  and  the  gas  works,  with  ample  sites  reserved  for 
many  other  industries  to  be  established  later.  All  these  works 
were  from  the  beginning  planned  on  a  large  scale,  and  in  none 
of  them  was  it  intended  long  to  use,  steam  as  a  motive  power, 
everything  being  planned  for  operation  by  electricity. 

Two  other  industries  for  which,  among  the  earliest  of 
these  operations  suitable  buildings  were  erected,  on  southwest 
avenue  nearest  the  foot  of  the  city  terrace,  deserve  special  men- 
tion; these  were  the  cooking  department,  and,  a  little  farther 
down  the  avenue,  the  laundry.  In  the  cooking  department 
through  the  summer  of  1914  the  food  was  prepared  to  supply 
the  needs  of  more  than  400,000  men.  The  task  seems  immense, 
but  armies  must  be  fed.  Industrial  armies,  especially,  deserve 
to  be  well  fed,  and,  great  as  the  kitchens  had  need  to  be,  in 
which  the  food  was  cooked  for  400,000  men,  it  is  obvious  that 
cooking  can  be  better  done  with  less  expenditure  of  energy, 
and  less  waste  of  time  in  well  equipped  kitchens  and  by  expert 
cooks,  than  about  camp  fires  with  camp  utensils,  by  men  de- 
tailed in  turns  from  the  companies. 


The  Iron  Works  Equipped.  47 

As  with  tlie  food  of  the  army  in  this  respect,  so  it  was  with 
their  washing.  If  the  care  of  the  clothing  of  a  large  body  of 
men,  especially  in  camp  life,  is  left  to  themselves,  it  means  dirt 
and  vermin  and  disease  and  degradation,  all  of  which,  doubt- 
less, have  always  been  inseparable  from  the  military  operations 
of  war,  but  which  would  be  a  reproach  and  a  shame  to  the 
industrial  army,  besides  destroying  its  efficiency.  To  prevent 
this,  this  great  laundry  was  established  in  the  very  beginning. 
With  the  best  steam  apparatus,  its  capacity  was  enlarged  as 
fast  as  the  forces  gathered,  until  its  weekly  duty  was  to  cleanse 
the  garments  of  more  than  400,000  men.  No  such  laundry 
had  ever  before  existed  or  been  thought  of.  Here  came  the 
soiled  clothing  of  the  army  in  company,  detachment,  and  regi- 
mental packages,  working  uniforms  and  underclothing.  It  was 
found  to  be  economy  that  every  man  should  have  two  suits  and 
change  weekly,  and  here  every  piece  received  the  treatment 
appropriate  to  its  cleansing,  was  repaired  where  repairs  were 
needed,  and,  perfectly  laundried  and  renovated,  the  regimental 
and  company  lots  were  returned  to  their  places  every  Saturday, 
so  that  the  men  began  every  week  clad  throughout  in  clean 
garments.  Of  course,  pains  were  taken  to  provide  for  all  bath- 
ing opportunities  also. 


r" 


48  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

It  was  early  in  June  of  this  year,  1914,  when,  by  order  of 
the  war  department,  the  camp  and  city  building  in  the  Uintah 
district  was  given  the  name  of  Fort  Goodwill. 

Even  at  that  early  date  work  on  the  city  site  was  well 
under  way.  When  we  think  of  the  many  great  works  that  were 
going  on  at  the  same  time  during  this,  which  was  afterward 
known  as  the  hurry  season,  we  should  remember,  not  only  the 
great  number  of  workmen  employed,  but  the  fact  that  in  all 
the  various  enterprises  in  which  they  were  engaged  the  work 
was  done  by  the  most  effective  machinery  applicable  where 
earth  was  to  be  removed  or  excavated  there  were  no  teams  or 
wagons,  and  but  very  few  shovels  employed,  but  great  steam 
shovels,  plows  and  scrapers  lifted  and  loosened  the  earth,  while 
strong  steel  cables,  stretched  on  wooden  supports  overhead, 
were  the  roads  along  which  great  carriers  ran  to  and  fro  loaded 
with  tons  of  earth  at  a  time  to  convey  it  to  the  place  where  it 
was  desired  to  deposit  it.  Where  rock  was  to  be  removed, 
power  drills  cut  down  quickly,  and  the  rock  was  loosened  and 
lifted  in  great  blocks,  as  it  is  in  quarries,  to  be  afterwards 
applied  to  any  purpose  for  which  it  was  best  adapted. 

In  preparation  for  building  the  city  the  ground  had  been 
platted  on  a  double  system  of  streets  and  avenues.  The  pri- 
mary system  has  already  been  mentioned  as  consisting  of  four 
main  avenues  intersecting  each  other  at  the  site  chosen  for  the 
city  center,  one  running  north  and  south,  another  east  and 
west,  and  the  other  two  bisecting  the  quadrants.  At  the  point 
of  intersection  of  these  avenues  it  was  intended  ultimately  to 
place  a  grand  public  edifice,  and  the  avenues  radiating  from 


City  Named  Fort   Goodzuill. 


49 


City  Named  Fort   Goodzvill.  61 

this  center  were  considered  and  named  as  eij^ht,  thus :  Begin-- 
ning  with  the  one  running  north,  North  MericHan  avenue, 
North  East  avenue.  Eastern  avenue,  South  East  avenue.  South 
Meridian  avenue,  South  West  avenue,  Western  avenue,  and 
North  West  avenue.  To  these,  as  a  part  of  the  primary  system, 
must  be  added  the  Park  Front  avenue.  This  Hes  in  a  broken 
Hne  generally  parallel  to  the  terrace  slope  that  borders  the  city 
plateau,  but  descending  at  its  western  end  obliquely  to  join  the 
continuation  of  the  Western  avenue  on  the  level  of  the  indus- 
trial district  below.  This  avenue  marks  the  border  of  the  city 
proper,  being  platted  for  buildings  on  the  north  side  only,  while 
the  south  side  facing  the  hill  slope  was  reserved  for  park  pur- 
poses. Attention  is  called  thus  particularly  to  this  avenue, 
because  it  marks  the  line  of  the  main  intercepting  sewer  and 
subway,  the  construction  of  which  was  the  primary  work  after 
the  survey  preparatory  to  building  the  city. 

Superimposed  on  this  primary  system  of  avenues  is  the 
secondary  system,  dividing  the  city  into  blocks  each  one-half 
mile  square  by  streets  running  north  and  south  and  east  and 
west. 

As  soon  as  the  survey  was  thus  far  completed  and  grades 
established,  men  and  machinery  were  employed  in  constructing 
the  subway  and  sewer  system.  This  was  done  by  opening 
trenches  along  the  Park  Front  avenue,  and,  opening  into  this, 
along  each  of  the  streets  of  the  secondary  system  running  north 
and  south.  Each  such  trench  was  made  deep  enough  and  wide 
enough  to  build  the  required  sewer  in  the  bottom  of  it  and  floor 
it  over,  and  to  wall  up  the  sides  with  masonry  in  a  substantial 
manner,  and  to  deck  over  the  chasm  on  steel  arches  to  support 
the  pavement  of  the  street,  thus  forming  a  subway  ample  to 
accommodate  all  water  pipes,  gas  pipes,  electrical  conductors, 


v/ 


62  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

and  other  conduits  which  might  afterwards  be  needed,  and 
room  enough  for  passage  besides. 

The  walls  of  these  subways  were  built  with  arches  for  the 
openings  of  the  secondary  subways  and  sewers  afterwards  to 
be  built,  but  those  already  mentioned  being  sufificient  for  the 
needs  of  the  first  season,  the  construction  of  this  secondary 
system  was  deferred  until  wanted. 

The  earth  removed  from  these  trenches  was  carried  by 
elevated  cableways,  such  as  have  been  described,  to  the  low 
places  and  used  in  grading  up  the  adjacent  blocks. 

About  the  time  that  the  surveyors  began  the  work  of 
laying  out  the  city  of  Fort  Goodwill,  an  advertisement  was 
published  inviting  architects  to  submit  plans  for  public  build- 
ings, each  to  consist  of  three  stories  and  basement,  such  build- 
ings being  designed  to  serve,  in  the  upper  stories,  as  lecture 
halls,  libraries  and  reading  rooms;  in  the  second  stories  as 
public  parlors  and  school  rooms,  and  on  the  ground  floor  as 
dining  rooms,  with  kitchens  and  other  accessories  in  the  base- 
ments. These  buildings  to  be  of  dignified  and  appropriate 
architecture ;  to  be  provided  with  steam  heat,  water,  gas  and 
electric  services,  with  boiler  and  power  rooms  placed  beneath 
the  level  of  the  ground  external  to  the  buildings  and  opening 
into  the  basements.  Gas  to  be  used  for  fuel.  These  buildings 
to  be  fitted  temporarily  each  to  serve  as  an  habitation  for  1,000 
to  1,200  men. 

Of  such  buildings  the  advertisement  stated  that  it  was 
designed  to  erect  during  the  present  season  in  Fort  Goodwill 
/  from  75  to  100 ;  that  uniformity  of  design  and  appearance  in 
these  buildings  was  not  desired,  and  that,  therefore,  an  archi- 
tect submitting  a  design  of  merit  might  reasonably  hope  for  its 
acceptance ;  that  any  architect  whose  design  was  accepted 
would  be  employed  to  superintend  the  erection  of  the  building. 


54 


Perfecting  the  Earth. 


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h  TTliU  ft/u.9rt . 


City  Named  Fort   Goodwill.  55 

and  that  he  might,  if  he  wished,  expect  to  be  retained  in  the 
service  of  the  government  for  similar  employment  during  a 
series  of  years  afterward.  Finally  it  was  stipulated  that  all 
designs  for  such  buildings  must  be  submitted  before  the  20th 
day  of  July  next. 

In  completing  the  plan  adopted  for  laying  out  the  city  of 
Fort  Goodwill,  while  latitude  was  allowed  for  variation  to  adapt 
each  individual  block  to  special  circumstances,  a  normal  type  of 
block  was  chosen  in  the  beginning,  according  to  the  accom- 
panying plan. 

This  normal  block  was  laid  out  thus :  Each  of  its  four 
sides,  half  a  mile,  or  2,640  feet  in  length,  was  divided  into  ten 
equal  parts  of  264  feet  each.  P'rom  these  points  of  division 
lines  were  drawn  parallel  to  each  of  the  four  sides  of  the  block, 
thus  dividing  it  into  strips  of  equal  width  parallel  to  its  four 
sides,  each  strip,  counting  from  the  outside  toward  the  center 
of  the  block,  being  shortened  to  avoid  crossing  the  strips  on 
the  adjacent  sides  in  the  course  external  to  it.  Each  corner, 
on  which  strips  of  the  same  number  from  the  border  of  the 
block  cross  each  other,  was  reserved  for  common  use.  From 
each  of  these  strips  on  its  outer  edge  50  feet  was  set  ofT  for 
street  purposes ;  two  of  these  50  foot  strips  falling  together  on 
the  borders  of  two  adjoining  blocks  constitute  the  secondary 
system  of  streets  already  mentioned.  At  the  corners  of  each 
such  block  tlie  squares  formed  by  the  crossing  of  the  external 
strips  on  the  sides  of  each  of  the  four  blocks  meeting  at  such 
corners,  together  with  the  50  feet  corresponding  to  the  width 
of  the  first  internal  street,  forms  a  square  reserved  for  public 
purposes,  each  side  of  which  measures  628  feet.  The  centers 
of  each  of  these  squares  were  the  sites  chosen  for  the  public 
buildings  contemplated  in  the  advertisement  before  cited. 


v 


56  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

The  50  foot  strips  internal  to  each  block  being  designed  to 
serve  as  parkways  between  lines  of  residence  lots  without 
fences,  on  which  the  houses  were  to  stand  well  back,  were  of 
ample  width.  To  complete  the  system  of  internal  thorough- 
fares in  each  such  block,  other  50  foot  strips  were  laid  out 
through  the  center  of  the  block,  parallel  to  the  sides,  dividing 
the  block  into  quarters  and  bisecting  each  residence  strip,  while 
the  squares  reserved  to  the  public  overlapping  each  other  along 
the  diagonal  lines  furnished  ample  space  for  roadways  there. 
Thus  within  a  very  short  distance  from  any  point  in  the  city  a 
thoroughfare  was  provided  along  a  straight  line  to  very  near 
any  other  point,  with  no  acute  angles  to  turn,  while  the  build- 
ing lots  were  all  right  angled  and  square  with  the  world. 

The  portion  of  each  such  block  remaining  on  which  to 
build  houses  consisted  of  strips  each  214  feet  wide,  affording 
ample  space  for  houses  fronting  each  side  of  each  street  or 
parkway,  with  space  enough  for  lawns,  trees  and  flowers  about 
each  house.  The  entire  model  block  provides  such  space  for 
about  600  residences,  which,  if  occupied  each  by  a  normal 
sized  family  of  five,  would  give  a  total  population  of  three 
thousand  on  each  such  block  of  half  a  mile  square ;  the  central 
sections  were  left  open  in  each  block  to  form  a  public  park  or 
playground,  528  feet  in  extent  on  each  side. 

In  working  out  this  plan  the  public  buildings  placed  on 
the  corner  squares  as  described  would,  of  course,  terminate 
the  vista  on  all  the  streets  forming  the  divisions  between  the 
blocks.  Where  such  streets  or  corners  coincided  with  the  main 
avenues  of  the  primary  system,  however,  the  public  buildings 
were  set  on  one  side  and  the  plan  of  the  block  modified  accord- 
ingly, these  main  avenues  being  designed  to  be  clear  through- 
out their  entire  extent,  with  the  exception  of  the  great  city  hall 
at  their  intersection  in  the  center  of  the  city. 


City  Named  Fort   Goodzuill.  57 

About  this  intersection  a  quarter  of  each  of  the  four  adja- 
cent blocks  was  reserved  without  buildings,  for  park  purposes, 
thus  making  a  central  park  about  the  city  hall  half  a  mile 
square. 

The  borders  of  all  the  streets  and  avenues,  together  with 
the  central  squares  in  the  blocks  and  the  squares  reserved  for 
common  use  along  the  diagonals  of  the  blocks,  were  turned 
over  to  the  charge  of  the  board  of  forestry  and  lanscape  garden-  ^ 
ing  for  ornamentation,  with  the  provision  that  the  central 
square  of  each  block,  while  to  be  planted  with  a  sufficient 
number  of  trees,  was  to  be  especially  fitted  as  a  playground  for 
children. 

To  designate  locations  throughout  the  entire  city  these 
blocks  are  numbered  north  and  south  from  eastern  and  western 
avenues,  and  east  and  west  from  the  meridian  avenues,  just  as 
the  United  States  survey  designates  townships  by  their  number 
and  range  north  and  south  of  a  given  base  line  and  east  and 
west  from  a  primary  meridian,  and  in  the  central  square  of 
each  block  is  a  sign  marked  with  the  meridian  and  range 
numbers  of  the  block.  To  locate  individual  houses  in  each 
such  block,  the  streets  are  numbered  front,  first,  second  and 
third  streets  east,  west,  north,  and  south,  counting  from  the  u 
outside  toward  the  center,  so  that  an  individual  address  might 
be,  John  Smith,  No.  14  Second  St.  North,  Block  3  South  2 
West,  Fort  Goodwill,  Utah. 

To  make  Fort  Goodwill  tenable  through  the  coming  win- 
ter it  was  necessary  that  the  public  buildings  on  the  corner 
squares  should  be  substantially  completed  and  furnished  with 
their  temporary  fittings  as  barracks ;  also  that  the  waterworks 
and  the  sewers  and  subways  should  be  so  far  completed  as  to 
connect  with  these  buildings,  also,  since  gas  was  to  be  the  fuel 
used  in  these  buildings,  that  the  gas  works  must  be  com- 


J 


68  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

pleted.  and  gas  pipes  as  well  as  water  pipes  laid  in  the  sub- 
ways to  connect  with  them,  and  all  the  works  were  pushed 
vigorously  forward. 

The  plans  for  the  buildings  had  been  sent  in  in  such  num- 
bers and  excellence  that  nothing  further  could  be  desired  in  the 
assortment  from  which  to  choose,  and  the  required  number 
had  been  accepted  and  assigned  each  to  its  proper  location,  and 
work  was  in  progress  on  them  by  the  first  of  August.  By  the 
first  of  October  the  roofs  were  on  them,  and,  since  much  of  the 
inside  finishing  was  intentionally  deferred  until  they  could  be 
devoted  to  their  ultimate  uses,  there  was  no  dif^culty  in  making 
the  needful  preparations  for  the  coming  winter  so  far  as  these 
buildings  were  concerned.  And  a  strange  looking  place  they 
made  of  Fort  Goodwill.  Eighty  odd  noble  edifices  standing 
half  a  mile  apart  in  a  treeless  desert,  the  plain  surrounding  them 
giving  evidence  of  having  recently  been  torn  up  with  trenches 
which  were  now  mostly  covered  in,  but  with  nothing  but  them- 
selves in  sight  to  relieve  their  solitary  greatness. 

For  the  water  works  the  high  reservoir  on  the  north  fork 
of  the  Uintah  furnished  an  ideal  source  of  supply.  It  was  fin- 
ished and  filled  about  the  middle  of  August.  The  mains  to 
conduct  the  water  to  the  city  were  laid  before  that  time,  but  as 
there  was  three  thousand  feet  of  fall  between  that  reservoir  and 
the  city  it  was  necessary  to  construct  several  intervening  reser- 
voirs into  which  the  water  could  be  conducted  from  one  to  the 
other  to  moderate  the  pressure.  A  system  of  automatic  valve 
gates,  controlled  by  floats  in  buildings  connected  with  each 
intermediate  reservoir,  prevented  overflow  or  waste.  It  was 
necessary  to  house  all  such  apparatus  in  order  to  prevent  its 
freezing  up  in  winter. 

The  last  of  these  reservoirs,  which  determines  the  pressure 
in  the  city,  was  placed  at  an  elevation  of  150  feet  above  the 


City  Named  Fort   Goodwill.  59 

highest  point  to  be  built  upon.  On  reaching  the  cit}'  it  was 
necessary  to  construct  for  tlie  water  pipes  a  girdHng  subway 
about  the  north  or  mountain  border  similar  to  that  on  the 
Park  Front  avenue,  though  smaller,  in  order  to  connect  with 
the  upper  ends  of  the  subways  on  the  north  and  south  streets. 
This  was  done,  the  pipes  were  laid  and  the  water  turned  on  as 
soon  as  the  water  in  the  high  reservoir  was  ready ;  before  that 
time,  in  order  to  supply  the  water  needed  for  the  building 
operations  in  progress,  and  for  the  camp,  a  temporary  system 
of  pipes  laid  on  the  surface  and  connected  with  the  north  fork 
of  the  Uintah  at  the  nearest  point  where  the  elevation  was 
sufficient  had  answered  every  need. 

The  gas  works,  being  designed  to  furnish  fuel  for  the  y 
whole  city  permanently,  were  made  on  a  scale  proportioned  to 
the  probable  demand  on  them.  They  too  were  ready  with 
every  perfection  that  science  and  art  could  give  them,  the  pipes 
were  laid  and  tested,  and  the  tanks  filled  with  gas  ready  to  turn 
on  in  each  building  as  soon  as  it  was  completed.  It  had  been 
ascertained  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt  that  fuel  for  all 
the  needs  of  the  city  could  thus  be  supplied  in  the  form  of  gas 
with  the  consumption  of  much  less  coal  than  would  be  needed 
if  it  were  to  be  burned  in  individual  furnaces  and  fireplaces, 
besides  doing  away  with  the  labor  and  dirt  inseparable  from 
distributing  the  coal  about  the  city  and  collecting  the  ashes, 
and  also  preventing  the  smoke  in  the  atmosphere  and  the  grime 
on  everything  which  that  ancient,  wasteful  and  unclean  mode 
of  consuming  coal  would  necessitate ;  all  of  this  the  use  of  gas 
for  fuel  entirely  obviated.  It  was  not  found  desirable  to  con-  , 
vert  all  the  carl^on  of  the  coal  into  gas,  the  coke  produced  ^ 
being  needed  in  the  iron  works.  There  were  other  by  products, 
also,  some  of  them  chemicals  of  great  value,  all  of  which  found 


J 


60  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

their  place  and  use  in  the  system  of  works  of  which  these 
formed  a  part. 

To  correct  the  treeless  dreariness  of  this  region,  a  board 
of  forestry  had  been  appointed  early  in  the  season,  and  to  this 
board  all  suitable  land  lying  in  the  bottom  of  the  Green  river 
canyon  within  twenty  miles  of  Fort  Goodwill,  about  three 
thousand  acres,  had  been  assigned  for  nurseries.  This  land 
being  sheltered  by  the  rocky  walls  of  the  canyon  and  easily 
watered  from  the  river,  was  admirably  adapted  for  that  use, 
and  there,  as  the  proper  season  arrived,  under  conditions 
suited  to  the  needs  of  each,  the  seeds  were  sown  from  which  the 
following  year  millions  of  forest  trees  would  spring,  of  every 
kind,  useful  or  ornamental,  that  could  be  made  to  thrive  in 
this  region.  These  trees,  however,  could  not  be  ready  for 
planting  for  several  years,  and  for  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
buildings  arrangements  were  made  with  nurseries  in  various 
parts  of  the  United  States  for  trees  suitable  for  planting  in  the 
coming  spring. 

When,  early  in  the  season,  the  railways  connecting  Fort 
Goodwill  with  the  iron  mines  and  the  coal  mines  and  the  world 
at  large,  had  been  completed,  the  force  that  had  been  employed 
in  their  construction  was  distributed  along  a  line  parallel  with 
the  Green  River  canyon  to  near  its  junction  with  that  of  the 
Grand  river  to  build  a  railway  there.  Because  of  the  necessity 
of  opening  the  way  continuously  to  near  the  site  of  operations 
of  the  remotest  force  employed  in  this  enterprise,  the  work  of 
pushing  a  railroad  through  the  desert  could  not  be  conducted 
along  the  whole  line  at  once,  but  was  necessarily  made  pro- 
gressive; however,  the  distribution  of  force  was  sufficiently 
extensive,  and  the  machinery  employed  so  effective  that  pro- 
gress was  very  rapid. 


i 


City  Named  Fort   GoodzviU.  61 

After  following  tlie  direction  of  the  Green  river  for  about 
120  miles,  this  line  of  railway  was  turned  westward  and  con- 
tinued along  a  course  winding  west  and  southwest  through  the 
wilds  and  deserts  of  the  Wahsatch  range  and  thence  south- 
westward  across  the  deserts  of  southern  Nevada  toward  the 
California  line. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  400,000  men  employed 
during  this  season  in  the  Fort  Goodwill  region  had  left  more 
than  100,000  men  for  service  elsewhere,  of  whose  employment 
nothing  has  yet  been  said.  This  division  had  been  sent  to 
southern  California  and  their  headquarters  established  at  San 
Bernardino.  About  20,000  men  of  this  division  had  been  or- 
ganized into  a  railroad  building  force  and  employed  in  pushing 
a  railway  north  and  northeast,  across  the  great  Mohave  desert, 
and  on  over  the  southern  part  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  range 
across  the  Nevada  line.  This  line  of  road  effected  a  junction 
with  that  coming  down  from  Fort  Goodwill  about  the  middle 
of  October,  and  the  line  was  open  from  Fort  Goodwill  to  San 
Bernardino.  The  completion  of  this  line  of  road  during  this 
season  was  very  important  because  the  buildings  going  up  in 
Fort  Goodwill  could  accommodate  properly  but  little  more 
than  85,000  men  during  the  coming  winter,  and  the  winters 
there  were  severe.  It  was  necessary,  therefore,  before  the 
season  closed,  to  remove  the  320,000  and  more  in  excess  of 
that  85,000  men  out  of  that  region  into  a  warmer  climate,  and 
it  was  intended  to  take  them  to  southern  California. 


62  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  V. 

j  In  none  of  the  works  in  and  about  Fort  Goodwill  was  it 
intended  to  use  steam  as  a  permanent  source  of  power.  The 
location,  with  3,500  feet  head  of  water  in  one  river  close  by, 
with  500  feet  head  on  another,  with  other  streams  of  consider- 
able size  pouring  down  from  mountain  heights  not  far  away, 
is  an  ideal  one  for  the  development  of  water  power. 

Away  back  in  the  '80s,  a  very  effective  water  wheel  was 
invented,  for  use  on  small  streams  furnishing  a  high  head  of 
water.  This  was  especially  well  adapted  for  the  development  of 
electric  power  from  mountain  streams,  and  it  was  first  exten- 
sively used  for  that  purpose  in  the  Sierra  Nevada  mountains  in 
California  where  it  was  perfected  and  generally  applied  to  that 
use  in  the  early  nineties. 

Long  ago  in  the  olden  time,  before  the  steam  engine  was 
invented,  when  water  power  was  the  power  of  the  world,  the 
saying  became  a  proverb,  "You  can  not  grind  with  water  that 
is  past."  All  through  the  reign  of  the  steam  engine  that  saying 
remained  true,  and  because  water  power  had  to  be  used  where 
nature  placed  it  and  could  not  be  had  where  it  was  wanted,  it 
fell  into  disuse  and  the  steam  engine  became  the  world's  source 
of  power.  But  when  electric  power  was  discovered,  and  the 
dynamo  was  invented,  this  old  proverb  became  no  longer  true. 

You  can  grind  with  water  that  is  past ;  you  can  grind  with 
water  that  has  not  yet  come  to  your  mill ;  when  it  pours  down 
from  mountain  heights  you  can  grind  with  the  same  water 
used  over  and  over  again ;  you  can  grind  with  water  that  isn't 
coming  by  the  way  of  your  mill  at  all ;  you  can  grind  anywhere 
with  water  anywhere  else  within  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  of 


64 


Perfecting  the  Earth. 


F'^ 


5^5?w-r 


Water,  Sfcaui,  and  Electric  Pozvcr.  65 

your  mill  or  even  farther,  hence  water  power  is  resuming  its 
ancient  place  and  the  steam  engine  is  falling  to  the  rear. 

As  a  permanent  source  of  power  for  this  region,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  two  main  forks  of  the  Uintah  which  have  been 
mentioned,  all  other  tributaries  of  the  Uintah  and  the  Green 
rivers  within  twenty  miles  of  P'ort  Goodwill,  of  which  there 
are  many,  were  followed  up  and  fitted  with  power  stations  *y 
suited  to  the  size  of  the  stream. 

These  power  stations  are  made  by  building  across  the  bed 
of  the  stream  at  the  head  of  each  slope  a  strong  dam  of  stone, 
making  a  pond  on  the  stream  above,  which  reaches  to  the  foot 
of  the  next  slope  and  the  power  station  above.  Each  such  dam 
is  fitted  with  a  flood  gate  opening  it  to  the  bottom,  to  be 
opened  in  times  of  storms  and  freshets  in  order  that  the  stones 
and  earth  washed  down  by  the  rains  and  melting  snows  may 
pass  on  and  not  be  deposited  in  the  basins  above  the  dams. 
From  a  discharge  flume,  into  which  the  water  flows  freely  from 
this  pond,  a  series  of  iron  pipes  are  placed  side  by  side,  the 
united  capacity  of  which  is  sufficient  to  carry  a  volume  of  water 
as  great  as  is  thought  desirable  to  use,  which,  of  course,  from 
ponded  waters  like  these  is  by  no  means  limited  to  the  volume 
of  the  stream.  This  series  of  pipes  is  termed  the  battery ;  each 
pipe  extends  from  the  flume  above  to  the  foot  of  the  slope,  and 
each  pipe  tapers  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  to  fit  the  diminish- 
ing volume  of  the  stream  caused  by  its  increase  of  velocity  as  it 
falls.  At  the  foot  of  each  such  pipe  is  placed  a  water  wheel 
and  each  wheel  is  connected  with  a  dynamo,  pipe,  wheel  and 
dynamo  in  each  case  being  of  a  capacity  suited  to  each  other, 
and  the  whole  properly  housed.  Arranged  in  this  manner,  it  is 
easy  to  use  as  many  or  as  few  of  the  dynamos  as  may  be  needed 
to  produce  the  rcc|uired  power  at  any  time,  while,  on  small 
streams,  the  ponding  waters  above  reserve  all  the  power  not  in 


66  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

use  at  any  time,  for  use  when  wanted  later,  and  waste  is 
avoided.  By  this  multiple  system  of  flumes,  wheels  and  dyna- 
mos, and  the  reservoirs  at  the  head  of  each  battery,  each  station 
can,  if  needed,  for  a  time  be  pushed  up  to  its  maximum  capac- 
ity at  any  stage  of  the  water,  and  the  power  available  is 
immense.  When,  in  the  winter,  these  mountain  ravines  are 
blocked  with  snow  and  inaccessible,  power  is  not  needed  for 
agricultural  operations,  and  the  stations  on  the  larger  streams 
are  more  than  sufficient  for  all  requirements,  then  the  flood 
gates  in  the  dams  on  these  mountain  streams  are  thrown 
open,  the  machinery  in  the  power  houses  is  oiled  and  covered 
with  canvas,  and  the  stations  are  closed  for  the  season. 

While  all  these  preparations  were  going  on  in  the  moun- 
tains, on  the  city  site  and  on  the  desert  plains,  the  work  on  the 
wheat  lands  had  been  pushing  forward  with  no  less  energy. 
All  the  sage  brush  and  other  encumbering  growths  had  been 
grubbed  out  and  carried  away,  surface  stones  had  been  re- 
moved, and  such  rocks  as  could  not  be  removed  were  located 
and  marked.  The  pipe  lines,  power  shafts,  pulleys  and  wire 
cables,  with  shifting  apparatus  to  remove  the  pulleys  and  cables 
from  place  to  place,  as  the  moving  machinery  on  the  land 
might  require,  were  all  completed  and  properly  housed ;  revers- 
ible gang  plows  made  very  strong,  for  lightness  was  not 
necessary,  one  to  every  half  mile,  were  waiting  in  the  power 
sheds,  while  seed  drills  and  grain  to  complete  the  sowing  stood 
in  readiness  to  follow  the  plows.  The  hose  pipes  were  coiled  in 
the  sheds,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  it  to  each  plug,  once  in  three 
hundred  feet.  The  reservoirs,  the  canal  and  the  aqueduct  were 
full  of  water ;  the  irrigating  force  had  been  drilled  in  the  service 
required  of  them,  and,  on  the  15th  day  of  September,  1914, 
everything  was  in  readiness  to  turn  the  water  on  the  land. 


Water,  Steam,  and  Electric  Pozvcr.  67 

At  8  a.  m.  of  that  date  an  electric  car  ran  down  the  tracks 
on  every  section  of  land  to  be  irrigated  and  left  three  men  at 
each  hose  plug".  At  the  signal  each  of  these  section  parties 
began  laying  and  coupling  the  hose,  the  men  on  the  even  num- 
bered sections  laying  it  forward  across  the  track,  and  those  on 
the  odd  numbers  passing  through  the  sheds  and  laying  the 
hose  from  the  back  to  meet  the  men  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
section.  Each  party  of  three  continued  laying  the  hose  until 
two-thirds  of  it  had  been  connected,  then  one  of  each  party 
went  back  to  turn  on  the  water  while  his  companions  completed 
laying  the  hose,  similar  parties  from  each  side  of  the  field 
meeting  in  the  center.  Then  at  a  signal  the  man  who  had  gone 
back  turned  on  the  water  and  returned  to  assist  in  handling  the 
hose  at  the  center  of  the  field.  At  the  end  of  each  line  of  hose 
one  man  handled  the  distributor,  which  is  quite  the  opposite 
kind  of  contrivance  from  a  fire  nozzle,  consisting  of  a  sort  of 
broad-wheeled  push  cart,  into  which  the  hose  discharged 
against  a  board  designed  to  spread  the  stream  and  from  which 
the  water  fiows  quietly  in  a  copious  stream  over  a  board  that 
runs  close  to  the  ground.  To  begin  operations  the  two  distri- 
butors from  the  opposite  sides  of  the  field  are  placed  side  by 
side  at  the  farthest  side  of  their  300  foot  section.  When,  all 
being  ready,  the  signal  is  given  to  the  man  at  the  plug  to  turn 
on  the  water,  in  less  than  a  minute  it  comes  rushing  through 
the  hose  under  the  pressure  of  50  feet  head  more  or  less  and 
begins  to  pour  out  of  the  distributors.  Then  the  men  handling 
the  distributors  slowly  back  side  by  side  across  the  section 
while  the  water  overflows  the  land  to  the  depth  of  an  inch  or 
more,  pouring  off  on  either  side  over  the  thirsty  earth  which 
rapidly  absorbs  it.  On  reaching  the  near  side  of  the  section 
where  the  earth  is  wet  from  the  next  line  of  hose,  the  distri- 
butors are  turned,  and  again  backed  across  a  few  feet  nearer 


68  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

the  pipe  line  from  which  the  water  comes  than  their  first  path 
across  the  section.  This  they  repeat  again  and  again,  uncoup- 
ling the  sections  of  hose  and  leaving  them  on  the  ground  as 
they  reach  the  couplings.  They  leave  the  earth  behind  them, 
on  this  occasion,  saturated  with  water  enough  to  have  covered 
it  to  the  depth  of  two  or  three  inches,  for  this  first  full  drink  the 
thirsty  earth  has  had  for  unnumbered  ages  needs  to  be  a  great 
one,  hence  two  days  were  consumed  in  watering  the  sections  to 
the  edges  of  the  field.  And  no  sooner  was  this  accomplished 
than  the  hose  was  recoupled  and  the  task  repeated.  This  time, 
however,  the  sections  were  covered  in  one  day,  and  the  hose 
was  coiled  on  its  truck  and  carried  along  toward  the  power 
sheds  as  fast  as  it  was  discarded.  It  was  now  the  18th  day  of 
September,  and  every  alternate  section  of  the  hundred  and  odd 
^     square  miles  of  land  was  ready  for  the  plow. 

The  hose  was  now  shifted  to  the  opposite  sides  of  the 
power  sheds  and  the  remaining  sections  were  irrigated  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  first  had  been.  This  method  of  irrigation 
was  adopted  for  the  first  utilization  of  the  land  as  best  adapted 
to  apply  the  water,  in  such  quantity  as  might  be  desired,  evenly 
to  a  large  body  of  land  not  yet  prepared  for  the  method  chosen 
for  permanent  use.  Afterward  the  land  was  fitted  at  leisure  for 
subsurface  irrigation  from  pipes  of  porous  tile  laid  in  the  sub- 
soil, and,  this  arrangement  once  perfected,  the  land  can  be 
watered  to  exactly  the  degree  desired  without  a  man  or  a  wheel 
going  over  its  surface,  v/hile  that  surface  remains  loose  and 
porous  as  when  fresh  from  the  plow. 

On  the  fields  thus  made  ready  the  wire  cablqs  were  now 
connected  over  pulleys  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  field  and 
the  gang  plows  attached,  one  for  every  half  mile  along  the 
power  shafts.  Better  to  distribute  the  strain,  the  power  was 
applied  at  both  sides  of  the  field  and  the  plow  started,  turning 


Water,  Steam,  and  Electric  Power.  69 

a  belt  of  earth  behind  it  eight  feet  six  inches  wide.  The  first 
time  across  the  plow  moved  at  the  quiet  rate  of  three  miles  per 
hour,  taking-  ten  minutes  to  cross  the  field,  then  the  plow  was 
reversed  to  throw  the  furrows  in  the  same  direction  as  the 
preceding  and  the  cable  was  speeded  up  to  six  miles  per  hour, 
carrying  the  plow  across  the  field  in  five  minutes.  At  this  rate 
of  motion  the  earth  flew  from  the  mould  boards  of  the  plow  as 
water  flies  from  the  bows  of  a  rapidly  moving  steamer,  pulver- 
izing it  completely  and  spreading  it  perfectly  level,  thus  making 
a  far  better  seed  bed  than  it  would  have  been  possible  to  pro- 
duce with  plows  and  harrows  moved  by  horses.  No  harrowing 
was  needed.  Each  plow  turned  the  earth  at  the  rate  of  six 
acres  per  hour.  After  the  plows  had  gained  an  hour's  start  the 
seed  drills  were  started  after  them  covering  twice  as  much 
ground  at  a  trip,  but  moving  only  half  as  fast  as  the  plows,  and 
five  days  after  the  plows  were  started  the  alternate  sections  first 
entered  upon  were  sown  with  wheat  throughout  their  entire 
extent. 

Meanwhile  the  other  sections  had  been  watered  and  were  ^/ 
ready  for  the  plow.  Shifting  the  machinery  to  the  opposite 
sides  of  the  power  sheds,  these  alternate  sections  were  plowed 
and  sown  in  like  manner,  the  whole  being  completed  before  the 
first  day  of  October ;  and  never  before,  since  the  mountains 
round  about  had  been  carved  out  of  the  earth,  had  their  arid 
foot  plains  smiled  with  such  verdure  as  covered  them  two 
weeks  later.  But  the  subsoil  and  the  rocks  were  thirsty,  and, 
that  the  growth  of  the  young  plants  might  not  be  checked 
until  the  snows  of  winter  should  cover  them,  the  fields  of  wheat 
were  gently  irrigated  again  during  the  last  week  of  October. 


70  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Southern  California  was  extremely  arid.  Including  its 
mountains,  plateaus,  an^  valleys,  in  its  natural  state  not  enough 
water  fell  on  it  to  support  life  on  more  than  one-tenth  of  its 
surface.  At  this  time,  1914,  that  water  had  for  thirty  years  and 
more  been  used  with  the  utmost  economy.  The  streams  which 
in  the  rainy  season  flowed  down  from  the  mountains  had  been 
dammed  and  their  waters  collected  to  give  life  to  the  parched 
earth  through  the  long  dry  season ;  but,  do  what  you  will,  more 
water  can  not  be  collected  in  a  country,  nor  pumped  out  of  it, 
than  falls  on  its  surface,  nor  so  much.  Artesian  wells  had 
been  sunk  where  ever  water  could  be  reached  by  them,  and 
their  outflow  was  used  to  irrigate  small  orange  groves  and  vine- 
yards, all  of  v/hich  lay  between  the  San  Bernardino  range  and 
the  sea,  but  all  the  irrigated  lands  of  the  region  taken  together 
amounted  to  but  a  few  oases  in  the  desert.  North  and  east  of 
the  San  Bernardino  range,  to  the  Nevada  State  line  and  the 
Colorado  river,  spread  the  great  Mohave  desert,  120  miles  and 
more  toward  the  north,  and  100  miles  to  the  eastward,  too  dry 
for  any  green  thing  to  grow  there,  not  even  a  cactus  except  in 
favored  spots.  Southern  California  for  300  miles  measured 
parallel  to  the  ocean,  and  200  miles  wide,  as  a  whole  remained 
a  desert.  In  the  heart  of  this  region,  the  culminating  height 
of  the  whole  country,  the  great  San  Bernardino  range  towers 
to  a  height  of  12,500  feet.  Separated  from  this  by  an  arid 
plain  from  ten  to  twenty  miles  wide,  are  the  San  Jacinto 
mountains,  a  rugged  and  irregular  group  constituting  the 
southern  part  of  the  coast -range,  and  covering  the  greater 
part  of  the  country  north  of  the  Mexican  boundary  between 


72 


Perfecting  the  Earth. 


The  California  Division.  73 

the  San  Bernardino  range  and  the  ocean.  This  group  reaches 
the  respectable  altitude  of  8,000  feet.  To  the  west  and  north- 
west of  this  mountain  group  lies  the  valley  of  the  Santa  Mar- 
garita river,  averaging  about  twelve  miles  wide  and  extend- 
ing directly  up  from  the  coast  to  the  foot  of  a  slope  leading 
directly  up  to  the  highest  part  of  the  San  Bernardino  range. 
This  Santa  Margarita  river,  like  all  other  streams  in  this  region, 
flowed  during  the  rainy  season  but  at  other  times  was  a  dry  bed 
onlv.  It  takes  its  rise  in  the  San  Jacinto  mountains,  bearing- 
the  name  in  the  upper  part  of  its  course  of  the  San  Jacinto 
river,  and  flowing  for  the  first  thirty-five  miles  in  a  nearly 
straight  line  northwest.  Here  it  turns  a  right  angle  and  flows 
a  little  more  than  twenty  miles  southwest,  along  the  course  of 
the  valley  above  described,  taking  the  name  of  Santa  Margarita 
at  this  elbow.  At  the  point  reached  in  this  twenty  miles  of 
southwestward  course,  the  Santa  Margarita  again  turns  a 
right  angle  toward  the  southeast,  flowing  fifteen  miles  in  that 
direction  to  the  foot  of  the  San  Jacinto  mountains  again,  and 
then  turning  once  more  toward  the  southwest  in  a  direct  course 
of  twenty-three  miles  it  reaches  the  sea. 

The  upper  three  reaches  of  this  river  bed,  as  will  be  seen, 
bound  three  sides  of  a  rectangle,  the  greater  part  of  which  is 
occupied  by  a  plateau  lying  above  the  height  of  2,000  feet, 
which  constitutes  a  sort  of  buttress  on  the  northwest  flank  of 
the  San  Jacinto  mountains. 

The  first  measure  taken  in  this  region,  except  the  topo- 
graphical survey,  had  been  to  extinguish,  under  the  law  of  y 
eminent  domain,  all  private  titles  in  the  San  Jacinto  mountains 
above  the  contour  line  of  2,000  feet,  and  also  throughout  a 
broad  tract  along  the  Santa  Margarita  valley  from  the  Pacific 
coast  up  to  the  heights  of  the  San  Bernardino  range  and  in  the 
territory  intervening  between  this  belt  and  the  mountain  tract 


74  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

of  San  Jacinto.     To  this  region,  in  the  early  spring-  of  1914, 

y    that  portion  of  the  army  not  needed  for  the  operations  about 

Fort  Goodwill  had  been  taken,  numbering  about  120,000  men. 

The  first  work  to  which  they  were  set  was  to  construct  a 
system  of  self-filtering  reservoirs  in  every  ravine  and  valley 
y  throughout  the  San  Jacinto  group,  of  such  capacity  as,  accord- 
ing to  previous  observations,  the  rainy  season  might  be 
expected  to  fill. 

In  this  work,  distributed  in  such  manner  as  they  could  be 
used  to  best  advantage,  about  80,000  men  were  employed,  some 
in  excavating  and  preparing  beds  for  the  reservoirs,  some  in 
quarrying  stone  with  which  to  build  them,  some  in  preparing 
lime  and  cement  for  use  in  their  construction,  some  in  con- 
structing tramways  and  inclined  plane  elevators,  and  some  in 
building  the  works  proper.  The  filtering  arrangement  consists 
of  stone  culverts  or  tunnels  laid  in  the  bottom  of  each  ravine 
above  the  reservoirs  which  they  were  to  feed.  These  were 
built  with  small  openings  everywhere  in  their  tops  and  sides. 
Over  these  tunnels  the  ravines  were  filled  to  the  depth  of 
several  feet  with  loose  broken  stone  and  gravel,  such  material 
as  constitutes  the  debris  which,  during  heavy  rains,  washes 
down  the  sides  of.  mountains  until  often  the  torrent  which  at 
such  times  pours  down  the  ravines  consists  as  much  of  stones 
and  gravel  as  of  water.  Such  debris  forms  the  beds  of  all  dry 
stream  channels  which  in  semi-arid  and  mountainous  regions 
form  the  natural  roadways.  This  loose  material  was  retained 
in  place  in  steep  ravines  and  valleys  by  walls  of  solid  masonry 
based  on  the  bedrock  and  built  across  the  ravines  wherever 
needed,  of  suf^cient  height  and  strength  to  prevent  the 
danger  of  landslides  down  their  course.  Over  the  foot  of  each 
tunnel  the  massive  upper  wall  of  a  reservoir  was  built  with  the 
tunnel  opening  through  it.     These  reservoirs  were  built  of  cut 


The  California  Division.  75 

stone  laid  in  cement,  and  carried  to  such  a  lieig-ht  as  to  be 
above  the  reach  of  overflow  in  any  possible  floods,  overflow 
channels  being  constructed  around  the  sides  of  the  reservoirs, 
of  course.  Many  of  these  reservoirs,  where  the  bed  of  the 
ravine  was  too  steep  to  admit  of  sufficient  capacity  in  a  single 
basin,  were  compound,  consisting  of  a  series  of  such  basins, 
the  water  from  the  upper  one  flowing  through  a  pipe  into  the 
one  next  below,  and  so  on  through  the  series. 

From  this  San  Jacinto  mountain  area  above  the  2,000  feet 
contour  line  all  cattle,  sheep,  and  other  herbivorous  and  brows- 
ing animals  were  rigidly  excluded,  and  every  precaution  was 
taken  to  guard  against  the  starting  of  fires  in  the  dry  herbage 
which  accumulated.  In  this  manner  the  growth  of  all  trees 
and  shrubs  was  protected  and  the  mountains,  better  clothed 
with  vegetation,  retained  more  of  the  moisture  that  fell  on  them 
and  therefore  became  cooler  and  a  better  condenser  of  atmos- 
pheric moisture,  and,  within  a  very  few  years,  the  annual 
precipitation  upon  them  was  greatly  increased. 

About  the  border  of  the  plateau  previously  mentioned  as 
buttressing  the  San  Jacinto  mountains  on  their  northwestern 
face,  and  lying  in  the  rectangle  outlined  by  the  three  upper 
reaches  of  the  Santa  Margarita  river,  starting  a  little  above  the 
2,000  feet  contour  line  at  the  southern  angle  of  that  plateau 
and  following  that  line  closely,  allowing  a  descent  of  about  six 
feet  in  a  mile  toward  the  nortli  and  northwest,  a  great  subway 
was  begun  this  season,  with  a  sewer  in  its  bottom,  similar  to 
that  about  the  Park  Avenue  border  of  Fort  Goodwill.  This 
was  the  first  work  showing  that  this  plateau  was  chosen  to  be 
the  site  of  a  city,  it  being  so  located  and  constructed  that  it 
would  naturally  receive  the  outfall  of  any  and  all  such  conduits 
that  might  afterward  be  built  on  the  plateau  above.  This  con- 
duit, though  at  the  bottom  of  a  spacious  subway  through  nearly 


76  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

its  whole  extent,  was  in  several  places  carried  over  ravines  on 
stone  arches.  It  was  built  in  a  leisurely  manner,  under  the 
labor  of  a  small  force,  and  it  was  three  years  before  it  was  com- 
pleted. It  terminated  finally  in  the  ravine  of  the  San  Jacinto 
river  north  of  the  plateau,  where  a  small  receiving  basin  and  a 
pumping  station  were  afterward  constructed  to  receive  its 
outflow  and  lift  it  on  the  way  to  a  more  distant  destination. 

Another  work  begun  in  the  San  Jacinto  mountains  very 
early  this  first  season  was  the  quarries.  Through  the  greater 
part  of  the  western  and  northern  portion  of  this  group  the 
rocks  of  which  these  mountains  consist  lie  in  horizontal  strata, 
and  from  about  the  3,000  feet  level,  where  the  plateau  set 
apart  for  a  town-site  breaks  into  the  steeper  heights  of  the 
mountains  above,  this  rock  consists  of  an  excellent,  hard, 
nearly  white  quartz  standstone,  in  a  formation  nearly  three 
hundred  feet  thick.  The  individual  strata  of  this  vary  from 
one  foot  to  ten  feet  in  thickness.  This  rock,  like  many  sand- 
stones, hardens  by  exposure  to  the  atmosphere,  and  for  quarry- 
ing and  building  purposes  nothing  could  be  finer. 

In  the  face  of  this  deposit,  on  the  same  level,  at  intervals 
of  about  a  mile,  avoiding  points  where  the  line  of  the  work 
would  intersect  ravines,  six  quarry  faces  were  opened.  But 
the  work  was  not  conducted  as  quarrymen  usually  work,  in  an 
open  pit,  regardless  of  the  unsightly  gash  which  they  make  in 
the  earth.  The  base  selected  for  operations  was  a  stratum  just 
above  the  3,000  feet  contour  line.  The  quarrymen  began  work 
in  the  stratum  which  reached  the  height  of  sixty  feet  above 
this  base.  From  this  stratum  they  removed  a  section  across 
a  space  of  twenty  feet  above  a  center  of  the  part  chosen  for 
excavation.  The  next  stratum  underlying  this  was  removed 
to  a  width  extending  as  much  beyond  this  first  on  either  side 
as  equaled  the  thickness  of  the  stratum.     Below  this,  the  next 


The  California  Division.  77 

stratum  was  removed  in  the  same  manner,  still  extending 
beyond  the  portion  removed  from  the  stratum  above  to  a 
width  equal  to  its  own  thickness,  and  so  on,  until  the  quarry 
face  widened  from  twenty  feet  in  width  at  the  top  to  sixty  feet 
at  the  level  twenty  feet  below.  From  this  point  with  vertical 
walls  through  the  remaining  forty  feet  of  depth  to  the  floor 
plane  this  width  of  sixty  feet  was  maintained,  so  that  each 
working  face  had  the  dimensions  of  sixty  feet  both  in  height 
and  widtli.  This  form  and  size  was  maintained  continuously, 
the  upper  strata  being  excavated  in  advance  so  that  each  face 
was  kept  in  the  form  of  a  stairway.  Each  of  these  quarry  faces 
was  pushed  forward  like  a  tunnel  directly  eastward  into  the 
body  of  the  mountain,  as  many  men  being  employed  on  each 
face  as  could,  with  their  compressed  air  drills  and  other 
machinery,  work  to  advantage. 

In  each  of  these  openings,  as  soon  as  the  mountain  had 
been  penetrated  far  enough  so  that  a  cross  tunnel  would  not 
approach  the  surface,  other  working  faces  exactly  similar  to  the 
first  were  started  toward  the  right  and  left,  and  a  similar  gallery 
was  pushed  in  each  direction  at  right  angles  to  the  first.  This 
afforded  space  for  three  times  the  force  employed  at  first,  and 
allowed  an  output  of  three  times  as  much  stone  in  a  given  time. 
Beyond  the  first  cross  gallery,  at  distances  of  120  feet,  so  that 
each  sixty  feet  wide  working  face  alternated  with  sixty  feet  of 
the  unbroken  rock,  other  cross  galleries  were  opened,  and  on 
each  of  the  cross  galleries,  as  fast  as  they  were  extended  to  a 
sufficient  distance  from  the  original  tunnel,  other  galleries  of 
the  same  size  and  spacing  were  oi)cncd  parallel  with  the  first. 
Tramways  for  removing  the  stone  and  for  advancing  portable 
cranes  for  handling  it  were,  of  course,  pushed  forward  in  each 
gallery  as  fast  as  the  working  face  advanced,  and  the  working 


78  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

space  available  soon  far  exceeded  what  could  have  been  utilized 
on  the  open  quarry  plan. 

With  the  working  space  available,  the  working  force 
employed  in  these  quarries  was  increased,  until  before  the  end 
of  the  year,  some  24,000  men,  in  three  shifts  of  8,000  each, 
working  eight  hours  at  a  shift,  were  working  day  and  night  in 
excavating  and  removing  the  stone,  and  the  excavated  space 
was  growing  into  a  system  of  catacombs  of  grand  proportions. 

Among  things  demanding  attention  in  this  vicinity  during 
this  first  summer  of  the  inJcjiistrial  military  service,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  provide  camps  and  barracks  suitable  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  the  main  body  of  the  army  which  was  to  be  brought 
here  for  the  ensuing  winter.  The  work  required  to  effect  this, 
however,  was  little  compared  with  what  would  have  been  nec- 
essary to  the  same  end  in  Fort  Goodwill. 

Several  villages  existed  in  the  tract  appropriated  to  gov- 
ernment uses  and  these,  with  the  addition  of  structures  suitable 
for  the  general  utilities  of  the  army,  such  as  the  cooking  and 
laundry  departments,  were  with  slight  alterations  made  avail- 
able for  housing  the  army. 

The  new  water  works  system,  in  the  San  Jacinto  moun- 
tains, was  ready  to  yield  a  more  than  ample  supply  of  that 
indispensable  fluid,  and  before  the  advent  of  the  main  body  of 
the  army  in  November  everything  was  in  readiness  for  its 
comfort. 

The  forces  in  this  division  of  the  army  during  this  season, 
who  were  not  employed  in  the  works  already  described,  nor  on 
the  force  engaged  in  pushing  the  railway  across  the  desert  to 
meet  that  coming  down  from  Fort  Goodwill,  were  employed 
in  grading  and  excavating  on  the  belt  of  territory  appropriated 
by  the  government  in  the  valley  of  the  Santa  Margarita.  Here 
with  the  most  powerful  machinery  they  were  leveling  ridges 


The   California   Division.  79 

and  filling"  valleys.  Great  ridges  and  crests  of  rock  were 
blasted  off  and  lowered  to  the  depth  of  hundreds  of  feet,  and 
their  substance  thrown  into  ravines  and  hollows,  but  a  peculiar 
feature  of  all  this  work  was  that,  at  intervals  of  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  apart,  strips  of  excavations  longitudinal  to  the  belt  of 
territory  covered  by  these  works  were  made  down  to  the  bed 
rock  and  left  open,  unless,  where  the  grading  had  been  done 
on  such  strips,  the  denuded  rock  reached  the  surface. 

These  denuded  places  were  shaped  into  beds  suitable  to 
receive  the  bases  of  towers  or  piers  of  cut  stone,  and  to  the 
margins  of  these  excavations  the  stone  was  taken  from  the 
great  quarries  in  the  San  Jacinto  mountains.  To  extending 
this  grading,  and  building  the  piers  in  these  excavations,  the 
main  body  of  the  army  was  applied  as  the  men  arrived  in 
November,  and  this  work  was  pushed  unremittingly  all  winter. 
Spread  as  it  was  over  many  square  miles  of  territory,  while  it 
was  evidently  in  strict  accordance  with  a  carefully  prepared 
plan,  what  the  ultimate  purpose  of  it  all  might  be  was  to  the 
world  an  unfathomable  mystery ;  so  far  as  the  general  public 
could  understand,  it  appeared  to  be  without  purpose.  This 
work  served,  however,  as  a  sort  of  reservoir  of  employment 
that  could  receive  additions  of  force  without  limit  and  from 
which  forces  might  be  withdrawn  for  other  purposes  to  any 
extent  without  damage  to  what  had  been  already  done  and 
without  crippling  the  efficiency  of  those  that  remained. 

The  hours  of  duty  and  the  mode  of  life  of  the  men 
employed,  here  as  elsewhere,  in  all  branches  of  the  service,  were  lY 
arranged  with  due  regard  to  the  comfort  and  improvement  of 
the  men  employed.  Eight  hours  was  the  limit  of  the  day's 
work,  and  during  the  greater  part  of  the  time  the  hour  of 
instruction  in  the  form  of  lectures,  which  every  man  was  \^ 
required  to  attend,  was  taken  out  of  this  eight  hours  of  daily 
duty,  though  it  was  impressed  on  the  men  that  this  was  a  favor 
to  be  withdrawn  whenever  the  good  of  the  service  required  the 
full  eight  hours  of  constructive  labor. 


80  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

At  Fort  Goodwill,  during  the  winter  of  1914-1915,  the 
iron  works  and  machine  shops,  together  with  all  other  fixed 
industries  that  could  be  carried  on  under  cover,  were  operated 
continuously  but  deliberately.  The  forces  retained  in  the  great 
buildings  that  had  been  erected  during  the  summer  were 
selected  especially  with  reference  to  manning  these  works,  but 
as  the  pressure  of  the  season's  hurry  relaxed  the  stress  put  on 
the  education  and  training^  of  the  force  was  increased.  The 
required  attendance  on  lectures  was  increased  from  one  hour 
to  two  per  day,  and  the  works  were  conducted  as  if  their 
primary  purpose  had  been  to  serve  as  a  manual  and  technical 
training  school.  Nevertheless,  before  spring  an  immense 
stock  of  water  pipe,  and  steel  shafting,  wire  cables,  machinery, 
dynamos,  and  all  the  special  devices  required  in  the  new  system 
of  agriculture  and  irrigation  had  been  accumulated,  and  of 
structural  steel  for  bridges,  every  piece  made  and  labeled  for 
its  place  in  the  bridge  for  which  it  was  designed,  there  was  also 
a  great  stock.  With  the  return  of  spring  the  forces  were 
brought  back  from  the  San  Jacinto  district  as  fast  as  required 
to  push  the  work  forward  here.  One  of  the  first  enterprises  of 
the  season  was  to  build  a  great  steel  bridge  across  the  Green 
river  canyon  at  a  narrow  point  about  twelve  miles  east  and  four 
miles  south  of  Fort  Goodwill  center.  An  electric  railway  was 
carried  across  this  bridge  and  across  the  plain  to  the  foot  of  the 
mountains  bounding  it  on  the  east,  and  thence  southward  to 
the  vicinity  of  the  White  river  canyon  where,  turning  eastward, 
it  continued  up  this  canyon  to  a  point  some  eighteen  miles 
beyond  the  Colorado  line. 


l^ 


The  Second  Period — 1915.  81 

At  this  point,  work  was  begun  to  build  a  great  dam  of  cut 
stone,  designed  to  raise  the  water  of  White  river  160  feet  above 
its  natural  level  and  form  a  lake  above  the  dam  some  twenty- 
four  miles  long  and  from  three  to  ten  miles  wide.  The  bed  of 
the  river  at  this  point  is  5,465  feet  above  the  sea ;  the  canyon 
there  is  narrow  and  the  rock  hard  and  solid,  making  a  favorable 
point  for  the  construction  of  such  a  dam.  This,  when  com- 
pleted, would  raise  the  water  to  the  level  of  5,626  feet.  From 
this  reservoir,  a  canal  was  carried  along  the  foot  of  the  heights 
down  the  White  River  valley  and  thence  northward,  with  a 
fall  of  only  two  feet  per  mile,  until  it  reached  the  Green  River 
canyon  at  a  point  near  its  crossing  with  the  Colorado  line. 
This  canal  makes  the  plain  lying  cast  of  the  Green  River  can- 
yon and  north  of  the  White  river  all  available  for  irrigation ; 
the  work  required  in  the  construction  of  the  dam,  however,  was 
great,  and  after  its  completion,  if  it  were  hurried  to  completion 
in  time  for  the  fall  sowing,  the  river  would  be  unable  to  fill  the 
reservoir  in  time  to  make  its  waters  available,  hence  work  was 
so  timed  on  this  as  to  have  it  ready  for  the  autumn  of  the  fol- 
lowing year. 

For  the  present  year  it  was  not  intended  to  sow  the  fields 
on  which  a  crop  of  wheat  was  now  growing,  to  wheat  a  second 
time,  and  they  were  needed  for  another  purpose,  but  the  waters 
of  the  Uintah  and  its  tributaries  were  amply  sufficient  to  irri- 
gate 150  square  miles  of  new  land  in  addition  to  the  fields 
already  supplied,  and  west  of  the  north  branch  and  the  main 
canyon  of  the  Uintah  twice  that  extent  of  land  awaited  it.  To 
utilize  this,  the  main  canal  constructed  the  preceding  year 
was  now  continued  westward  from  the  storage  reservoir  along 
the  contour  line  that  would  give  it  a  fall  not  exceeding  one  and 
one-half  feet  per  mile,  until  it  crossed  the  west  fork  of  the 
Uintah,  thence  curving  southward  it  crossed  Strawberry  Creek, 


82  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

a  tributary  entering  the  west  fork  of  the  Uintah  from  the  south- 
west, which  was,  of  course,  intercepted  and  used  as  a  feeder  for 
the  canal.  From  this  crossing  the  contour  of  the  land  now 
made  it  necessary  to  carry  the  canal  back  in  a  sweeping  curve 
toward  the  east,  southeast,  and  south,  but  before  reaching  the 
border  of  the  Green  River  canyon  again  more  than  ten  town- 
ships, or  360  square  miles  of  land  lying  below  the  level  of  the 
canal  had  been  included  in  its  sweep  and  made  available  for 
agriculture. 

For  the  present  season's  uses  about  twenty  square  miles  of 
land  between  the  high  level  canal  from  the  west  fork  reservoir 
and  the  main  canal  were  prepared  for  plowing  in  early  June,  to 
be  planted  in  potatoes.  One  hundred  and  fifty  square  miles 
within  the  bend  of  the  main  canal  up  the  valley  of  the  west  fork 
were  put  in  preparation  to  be  sown  with  wheat.  The  methods 
of  applying  the  water  to  the  land,  and  of  moving  plows  and 
other  machinery  by  power,  were  the  same  as  were  employed 
the  previous  year. 

Up  the  main  canal  parallel  with  the  canyon  of  the  Green 
river,  northeast  from  Fort  Goodwill,  a  small  force  of  men  with 
excavating  machinery  were  engaged  in  extending  its  channel. 
In  this  part  of  the  work  there  was  no  hurry,  but  the  electric 
railway  that  paralleled  the  canal  was  pushed  on  to  the  Colorado 
line,  about  thirty  miles  northeast  of  Fort  Goodwill.  Here 
quarrymen  and  stonecutters,  with  all  the  apparatus  used  in 
their  work,  were  sent,  and  a  camp  was  established,  and  quarries 
were  opened,  and  the  bed  rock  across  the  canyon  was  laid  bare 
and  carved  into  a  mortise  to  receive  the  foot  of  a  great  dam, 
and  the  work  was  begun  to  build  here  the  greatest  dam  that 
had  ever  been  built  anywhere  up  to  date.  The  bed  of  the  river 
here,  at  the  bottom  of  the  canyon,  is  close  to  the  5,000  feet 
level  above  the  sea..     The  level  of  the  water  in  the  canal,  5,462 


The  Second  Period — /p/'^.  83 

feet  at  Fort  Goodwill,  would  here  need  to  be  about  5,500  feet, 
and  it  was  the  purpose  of  this  dam  to  lift  it  to  that  height. 
The  bed  rock  of  the  canyon  here  is  hard  and  firm,  and  the  total 
width  to  be  dammed  about  a  mile  and  a  quarter.  The_woEk-was 
to  be-done  in  a  manner  to  stand   forever,  ar^dno  pains  were 


spared  to  make  it  perfect.     The  height  of  the  dam  above  the 

^— — — _ 
bed  of  the  river  was  to  be  520  feet,  the  slope  of  its  front  50 

degrees.     The  breadth  of  masonry  from  front  to  back  at  the 

bottom,  as  it  lay  in  the  mortise  cut  in  rock,  was  430  feet ;  the 

rear  wall  of  the  stone  work  was  to  be  vertical  and  to  be  filled 

in  behind  with  a  filling  of  earth,  and  the  level  top  of  the  dam  to 

be  20  feet  broad.     The  dam  itself  sweeps  across  the  canyon 

in  a  circular  curve  on  a  radius  equal  to  the  length  of  the  dam, 

with  its  convexity  up  stream.    The  slant  height  of  the  face  of 

this  dam  from  the  channel  of  the  river  at  its  foot  to  the  roadway 

across  its  top  is  nearly  700  feet. 

This  dam  was  a  work  which,  as  will  be  seen,  would  have        , 
swallowed  the  great  pyramid  of  Egypt  many  times  over,  and,  \/ 
while    it    was    pressed    steadily    forward    with    all    the    great 
resources  of  modern  engineering,  it  was  not  necessary,  neither 
was  it  desired,  to  hasten  it  unduely,  and  it  was  expected  to  take 
three  or  four  years  in  building. 

While  these  works  were  in  progress  on  the  Green  river  , 
above  Fort  Goodwill,  others  were  going  on  below,  with  the  V 
purpose,  ultimately,  to  carry  the  collected  waters  to  the  arid 
plains  farther  south  where  they  could  be  utilized.  The  land 
lying  south  of  the  return  sweep  of  the  main  canal  from  the 
valley  of  the  west  fork  of  the  Uintah  toward  the  Green  River 
canyon  rises  into  a  mountain  mass  reaching  above  the  height 
of  9,000  feet,  filling  the  space  from  the  Wahsatch  mountains 
clear  up  to  the  Green  River  canyon,  while  on  the  opposite  side 
of  that  canyon  a  similar  elevation  comes  down  from  the  moun- 


84  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

tain  heights  of  Colorado  in  the  east  to  meet  it.  Between  these 
mountain  heights  the  Green  River  canyon  forms  a  mere  gap. 
The  canyon  walls  through  this  region,  now  known  as  the  Green 
River  highlands,  are  rugged  in  the  extreme.  For  long  dis- 
tances they  are  nearly  vertical,  often  overhanging,  broken  by 
projecting  promontories  and  yawning  gulfs,  with  a  height 
varying  from  800  to  1,500  feet,  while  the  level  of  the  canal  at  its 
entrance  of  the  highlands  is  720  feet  above  the  bottom  of  the 
canyon,  and  at  its  emergence,  and  point  of  departure  from  the 
canyon,  thirty-five  miles  further  down  the  river,  its  height  is 
972  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  river  in  the  canyon.  Through 
this  region  it  was  necessary  to  carry  the  canal.  Wherever  the 
canyon  walls  sank  low  in  the  level  of  the  canal  it  was,  of  course, 
built  upon  the  surface,  but  for  nearly  thirty  miles  out  of  this 
thirty-five  it  was  necessary  to  carry  it  through  a  tunnel. 
This  tunnel  follows  the  course  of  the  canyon  as  nearly  as 
proper  curves  will  permit.  It  was  sought  to  carry  the  line  of 
the  canal  near  enough  to  the  canyon  walls  so  that  openings 
could  be  cut  through  from  the  tunnel  at  frequent  intervals  to 
permit  the  rock  removed  to  be  cast  out  through  them  into  the 
canyon  below.  Often,  however,  the  tunneled  canal  departs 
widely  from  the  canyon  walls  to  pass  some  sharp  angle,  and 
often  it  emerges  to  cross  some  yawning  gulf  on  an  aqueduct 
built  on  trussed  arches  of  steel. 

-  This  tunneled  canal  was  made  to  carry  a  width  of  sixty 
feet,  and  a  depth  of  ten  to  fourteen  feet,  with  a  fall  of  two  feet 
per  mile,  the  channel  being  cased  in  with  masonry  laid  in 
cement.  This  canal  would  not  be  needed  for  use  until  the 
great  dam  on  the  upper  Green  river  was  completed,  but  a 
sufificient  force  was  put  at  work  on  it  to  keep  it  in  progress 
night  and  day  from  three  working  faces,  the  first  being  at  the 
entrance  just  south  of  the   Pleasant  Valley  brook  crossing. 


The  Second  Period — 191  ^i- 


85 


The  Second  Period — /p/5.  87 

thirty-six  miles  south  of  Fort  Goodwill,  and  the  other  two  one 
on  each  side  of  a  valley  five  miles  further  south.  This  work 
was  pushed  forward  continuously  by  three  shifts  of  men 
working  eight  hours  each  on  each  face  summer  and  winter. 
The  portion  which  remained  unfinished  when,  three  years  later, 
the  great  dam  drew  near  completion,  was  hurried  by  the  open- 
ing of  a  dozen  new  working  faces  from  the  canyon  wall  and 
from  surface  shafts,  besides  that  at  the  point  of  exit  of  the 
tunnel  high  above  the  canyon  of  Prices  river  where  that  stream 
flows  along  the  south  side  of  the  mountain  into  the  Green  river 
from  the  west.  From  this  point  the  canal  was  carried  westward 
along  the  mountain  side  twenty-four  miles,  to  conduct  the 
water  into  a  great  reservoir  formed  by  damming  the  valley  of 
Prices  river  at  that  point,  but  this  belongs  to  a  later  stage  of 
our  narrative. 


88  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Preparatory  for  the  needs  of  the  season  of  1915  several 
new  industries  were  started  in  the  industrial  district  of  Fort 
Goodwill  which,  together  with  those  established  during^  the  pre- 
ceding season,  were  now  organized  to  be  operated  by  the  citizen 
tenantry,  the  status  on  which  the  coal  and  iron  miners  had 
been  enlisted  from  the  beginning. 

Within  two  months  after  the  opening  of  the  government 
/  coal  mines  a  surplus  of  coal  was  produced,  beyond  the  needs 
^  of  the  government  industries.  This  surplus  coal  served  as  a 
basis  for  all  needed  exchanges.  Among  the  new  industries 
established  at  Fort  Goodwill  was  a  large  woolen  mill;  with  a 
portion  of  the  surplus  coal,  or  money  for  which  it  was  sold, 
wool  was  purchased  in  California  and  Oregon,  out  of  which 
was  manufactured  in  this  mill  every  class  of  woolen  goods 
needed  for  use  in  the  army,  and  also  for  all  incidental  needs  of 
the  citizen  tenantry ;  a  surplus  of  such  woolen  goods  as  were 
likely  to  be  called  for  from  the  outside  world  was  also  produced 
to  be  exchanged  for  other  things  needed,  but  no  effort  was  ever 
made,  by  advertisement  or  otherwise,  to  seek  a  market  for 
them.  All  these  goods  were  of  a  quality  far  superior  to  any 
that  had  ever  been  furnished  to  the  army  through  contractors, 
and  the  money  expense  was  nothing  at  all.  The  machinery 
was  some  of  it  made  in  Fort  Goodwill,  some  of  it  was  pur- 
chased with  coal  extracted  from  the  government  mines,  the 
operatives  themselves  were  government  employees,  and  the 
force  employed,  considering  the  output,  and  the  number  of 
consumers  supplied,  was  exceedingly  small.  Machinery  did 
most  of  the  work.  A  clothing  factory  was  also  equipped  in 
which  the  products  of  this  mill  were  worked  up  with  other 


Progress  in  Fort  Goodimll.  91 

cloths  into  garments  and  other  forms  needed.  Simiharly,  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  manufacture  of  supplies  for  all  other 
general  needs  which  it  was  possible  to  supply  with  home  man- 
ufactured products.  Most  of  these  industries  were  operated 
with  two  shifts  of  eight  hours  each ;  such  industries,  how-  ^ 
ever,  as  operating  the  blast  furnaces  and  the  Bessemer  con- 
verters in  the  iron  works,  in  which  it  was  necessary  that  work 
should  be  continuous,  and  in  which  work  was  especially  labori- 
ous, were  operated  in  four  shifts  of  six  hours  each,  the  six 
hours  of  labor  in  these  being  held  equivalent  to  the  eight  hours 
in  the  other  industries. 

The  commissary  department  in  Fort  Goodwill  took  on  the  ^ 
character  of  an  enormous  department  store  furnishing  abso- 
lutely everything  that  might  be  called  for,  while  the  productive 
industries  aimed,  as  far  as  possible,  to  supply  every  thing 
required  in  stock.  This  description,  however,  anticipates  our 
narrative  by  a  few  months,  in  that  it  describes  the  condition 
prevailing  after  a  large  part  of  the  population  consisted  of 
citizen  tenantry  among  whom  were  women  and  children  in 
normal  proportion,  but  the  early  months  of  1915  were  occu- 
pied in  bringing  the  commissary  department  into  the  condition 
described. 

With  the  opening  of  the  season  of  1915  all  payments  in  the 
Fort  Goodwill  division  of  the  army  as  well  as  to  the  citizen 
tenantry  employed  were  madejn  time  credits  p;^yable  in  goods. 
These  time  credits  were  for  hours  and  minutes,  monetary  units 
not  being  mentioned  on  them  ;  they  were,  however,  convertible 
into  money  at  the  option  of  their  holders,  money  being  treated 
as  an  article  of  merchandise  in  the  transaction.  The  demand 
for  money  in  exchange  for  time  credits  was  discouraged,  how-  y 
ever,  by  the  fact  that  more  goods  of  any  kind  could  be^^ 
pjj[rchased  with  the  time  credits  direct  than  with  the  money  that    _ 


y 


o^  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

could  be  obtained  for  them.  The  money  for  which  time  credits 
^ould  be  exchanged  exceeded  the  wages  given  anywhere  in  the 
competitive  world  for  the  time  covered,  so  that  there  was  no 
ground  for  complaint  regarding  the  sum  paid,  but  yet  it  was 
possible,  while  rating  goods  at  the  lowest  retail  cash  prices 
prevailing  anywhere,  to  make  the  price  of  goods  in  time  credits 
so  low  that  if  one  turned  the  time  credits  into  money,  and  then 
with  the  money  bought  goods  at  these  lowest  retail  cash  prices, 
there  would  always  be  a  considerable  loss  to  the  purchaser 
/  from  what  could  have  been  bought  with  the  credits  direct.  In 
this  way  it  was  not  difficult  to  wean  both  the  army  and  the 
people  from  the  money  habit  of  mind. 

The  time  credit  allowed  the  citizen  tenant  employee  was 
two  hours  per  day  for  eight  hours'  service,  the  other  six  hours 
being  exacted  of  him  as  a  tax  for  house  rent,  board,  public 
services,  and  other  benefits  which  he  received.  In  those 
arduous  occupations  in  which  six  hours  constituted  the  day's 
work  the  time  credit  was  still  two  hours,  and  the  enlisted  men 
in  the  army  received  the  same  credit.  In  fixing  the  time  value 
of  goods  in  store  all  classes  of  goods  were  averaged  together, 
those  purchased  in  the  markets  and  those  imported  from 
abroad  being  held  equivalent  to  those  exchanged  for  them, 
plus  the  time  expended  in  making  the  exchanges,  and  were 
rated  at  the  value  in  time  of  the  average  time  expended  in  pro- 
ducing or  procuring  them.  When  any  improvement  in  method 
or  machinery  or  resources  enabled  any  kind  of  goods  in  use 
to  be  produced  at  a  smaller  expenditure  of  time  in  labor,  the 
time  value  of  every  kind  of  goods  in  stock  was  reduced  in  the 
same  degree  by  the  saving.  The  purpose  of  this  arrangement 
was,  as  rapidly  as  possible,  to  adjust  matters  so  that  one-fourth 
of  the  force  employed  should  provide  the  consumable  wealth 
needed  by  the  whole,  leaving  three-fourths  for  employment  on 


Progress  in  Fort  GoodzviU.  91 

nonproductive  improvements ;  and  so  effective  were  the 
methods  and  machinery  employed  that  this  one-fourth  seemed 
likely  to  support  the  whole  in  elegance  and  luxury. 

This  policy,  tliough  eminently  satisfactory  to  the  army  and 
the  citizen  tenantry  employed,  was  far  otherwise  to  the  business 
men  of  the  competitive  world,  and  especially  so  to  the  tribe  of  ,., 
contractors  who  had  been  accustomed  to  enrich  themselves 
through  contracts  for  providing  the  army  with  various  needed 
supplies.  They  protested,  of  course,  but  as  the  purpose  of  the 
nation  in  adopting  this  course  was  primarily  to  make  the  army 
self-supporting,  and  these  gentry  were  never  able  to  suggest 
any  method  by  which  the  army  could  possibly  become  self- 
supporting  while  the  privilege  was  reserved  to  them  of  supply- 
ing its  needs  on  contracts  to  their  own  enrichment,  their 
protests  were  unavailng;  and  when  the  administration  assured 
them  that  the  government  would  no  longer  be  conducted  for 
the  purpose  of  enablino_ them  to  extract  wealth, out  of  the 
American  people  they  soon  gave  the  matter  up  and  either 
settled  down  to^lmT  on  their  former  accumulations,  or  sought 
other  prey ;  generally  the  latter,  so  long  as  any  fields  of  exploi- 
tation remained  open  to  them. 

On  one  occasion  a  committee  of  business  men  sought  an 
interview  with  General  Goodwill  to  protest  against  the  policy 
on  which  military  matters  were  being  conducted,  on  the 
ground,  first :  of  the  great  expense  of  such  operations  as  those 
in  which  the  army  was  engaged ;  and,  second,  of  the  interfer- 
ence of  these  operations  with  the  business  that  formerly  grew 
out  of  the  necessity  of  providing  for  the  needs  of  the  army. 

To  these  gentlemen,  after  they  had  stated  their  proposition 
and  made  their  argument,  the  General  replied  as  follows : 
"Gentlemen :    You  are  in  error.     It  is  true,  great  works  have 


92  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

already  been  done  by  the  army ;  but  they  have  not,  as  you  seem 

yto  imagine,  been  attended  with  great  expense.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  accounts  in  the  war  department  will  show  you  that 
the  expense  of  maintaining  the  army  during  its  first  year  of 
industry,  with  its  peace  equipment,  has  been  less  than  that 
incurred  during  its  last  year  of  idleness  with  its  war  equipment, 
though  during  that  time  we  have  had  but  one  source  of  income 
from  which  w^e  could  in  part  meet  the  expense  of  our  multiplied 
needs,  and  that  one  source  of  income  we  have  had  but  little 
more  than  half  the  year.  That  source  of  income  has  been 
our  coal  output.  Before  this  second  year  of  industry  is  past 
we  will  probably  be  able  to  produce  our  own  food  and  clothing 
and  machinery.  There  are  far  greater  works  to  be  undertaken 
than  any  in  which  we  have  yet  engaged,  but  they  will  not  cost 
the  American  people  one  cent.  It  would  be  very  poor  general- 
ship that  could  not,  with  modern  machinery,  on  a  fertile  soil, 
with  half  the  force  support  the  whole ;  we  shall  do  better  than 
that,  and  we  shall  do  it  from  a  desert  where,  by  the  methods 
and  principles  you  advocate,  men  could  not  live.  Labor  pro- 
duces everything,  pays  everything,  and  costs  nothing  but  its 
own  product,  a  very  small  part  of  its  own  product  according  to 
fact  and  custom,  though  in  strict  justice  it  is  entitled  to  the 
whole, 
t  "From  capitalists  we  have  cut  loose;  we    will  no  longer 

^  pay  tribute  to  them  nor  be  limited  by  them.  We  have  no 
further  use  for  them  nor  their  money.  The  army  will  soon 
be  wholly  self-supporting,  and  its  operations  will  be  so  ordered 
that  it  will  be  well  supported,  live  a  w^holesome  life,  enjoy 
abundance  of  all  things  needed,  and  all  under  pleasant  con- 
ditions. It  will  provide  all  these  for  itself  and  no  one  will  have 
a  right  to  complain. 


Progress  in  Fort  Goodwill.  93 

"Evidently,  any  one  who  finds  his  opportunities  for  his 
own  enrichment  cut  off  by  the  fact  that  a  great  body  of  men, 
formerly  nonproductive  and  costly,  has  now  become  self-V^ 
supporting ;  evidently,  whether  he  has  realized  the  fact  or  not, 
such  a  man  has  himself  been  a  parasite  on  the  people,  enriching 
himself  at  the  public  expense  over  the  shoulders  of  other  and 
lesser  parasites.  Gentlemen,  the  present  policy  in  regard  to 
the  army  is  right,  it  is  wholesome,  it  tends  to  the  public  good. 
The  American  people  are  not  blind  to  its  benefits  and  they 
approve  of  it ;  and  to  this  policy  the  nation  will  adhere." 

This  address  was  published  in  all  the  newspapers,  and, 
becoming  known  in  the  army,  it  kindled  among  the  soldiers  a 
wave  of  enthusiasm  for  their  general  that  exceeded  anything 
hitherto  experienced.  The  men  began  to  take  an  interest  and 
a  pleasure  in  their  work  unfelt  before.  Their  imagination  kept 
before  them  pictures  ever  varying  and  ever  bright  of  the  earth 
blooming  forth  in  new  beauty  perfected  under  their  hands,  and 
they  experienced  a  pleasure  that  can  come  from  nothing  else 
than  the  consciousness  of  creating  in  the  universe  something 
which  the  soul  can  contemplate  and  pronounce  it  good.  "Who  * 
wouldn't,"  they  were  wont  to  ask,  "prefer  a  world  that  he  could 
fix  up  to  suit  him  rather  than  one  that  he  must  take  ready  made 
and  leave  as  he  finds  it?" 


94  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

We  must  again  notice  the  progress  made  in  building  the 
city  of  Fort  Goodwill.  At  our  last  survey  of  the  scene  the 
great  edifices  ultimately  designed  for  nobler  uses,  but  for  the 
present  serving  as  barracks  for  the  men  who  remained  in  Fort 
Goodwill  to  operate  its  industries  through  the  winter,  were 
standing  half  a  mile  apart,  each  one  alone,  while  the  recently 
turned  up  earth  over  the  subways  gave  a  strangely  unfinished 
and  raw  appearance  to  the  scene. 

Through  the  winter  the  architects  who  had  designed  the 
^  edifices  erected  in  1914  had  been  busy  designing  and  perfecting 
tasteful  plans  for  small  houses,  in  each  of  which  the  usual 
kitchen  and  laundry  arrangements  were  omitted,  while  bath 
rooms,  gas  grates,  and  heaters,  and  electric  lighting  appliances 
were  freely  provided  in  all.  The  corps  of  architects  working 
in  unison  had  devised  a  hundred  and  more  details  of  beauty 
for  use  in  building  these  houses,  each  of  which  could  be  manu- 
factured by  wholesale,  and  which  could  be  combined  in  innum- 
erable forms  to  delight  the  eye,  and  serve  the  uses  of  the  people 
just  as  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  can  be  combined  into  all  the 
•words  in  the  dictionary,  and  express  all  thoughts  conceivable 
in  the  minds  of  mankind. 

A  few  miles  up  the  Green  River  canyon  a  great  deposit  of 
beautiful  gypsum  had  been  found,  and  of  this  plaster  of  paris 
was  made  which  was  utilized  in  the  manufacture  of  many  of 
these  artistic  details.  Others  were  made  of  terracotta  and  tile 
manufactured  in  a  department  of  the  brick  works.  Hollow 
brick,  grooved  on  the  outside  to  receive  and  retain  a  stucco 
finish,  entered  very  largely  into  the  structure  of  these  houses, 


Progress  in  Fort  Goodwill.  95 

furnishing  not  only  air  spaces  to  preserve  equality  of  tempera- 
ture and  exclude  dampness,  but  also  providing  for  the  con- 
struction of  ventilating  f^ues  in  the  walls  and  conduits  for  the 
transmission  of  gas  and  water  pipes  and  electrical  conductors, 
out  of  sight  and  out  of  the  way. 

Wood  was  scarce  in  this  region.  If  the  floors,  doors  and 
window  cases  and  sash  for  the  houses  to  be  built  here  during 
the  season  had  been  of  lumber,  Utah  could  have  been  stripped 
of  her  last  tree,  and  then  the  quantity  of  lumber  which  it  would 
have  been  necessary  to  purchase  from  the  competitive  world 
would  have  made  the  work  of  building  the  city  very  costly. 
But  a  process  had  been  perfected  of  making  out  of  sage  brush 
and  other  desert  growths  a  sort  of  wood  pulp  or  p^ier  mache 
with  ideal  qualities  of  nonconductivity  to  heat,  elasticity  and 
durability  for  flooring,  to  cover  tile  supported  on  iron,  and  also 
for  casings  and  doors.  In  anticipation  of  this  use  all  the  sage 
brush  and  other  plants  which  had  been  removed  from  the  agri- 
cultural lands  of  the  preceding  year,  together  with  that 
gathered  from  the  land  now  being  cleared,  had  been  saved. 
This  served  as  material  on  which  a  pulp  mill  in  the  industrial 
district  was  kept  running,  and  the  product,  compressed  and 
roasted,  combined  with  gums  and  resins,  gypsum,  lime,  or  clay, 
was  of  more  service  in  building  Fort  Goodwill  than  forests  and 
saw-mills  would  have  been. 

None  of  the  small  homes  to  be  built  this  season  were  to  be..,^^  , 
more  than  two  stories  high ;  none  of  them  were  ugly,  and  there "^^ 
was  variety  enough  in  form  and  plan  to  avoid  any  suggestion 
of  monotony  or  sameness  anywhere.  The  work  undertaken  this 
season  was  to  build  houses  on  the  residence  allotments  on  each 
outside  plat  of  the  Fort  Goodwill  blocks.  By  referring  to  the 
plan  of  the  model  block,  on  page  54,  this  arrangement  will  be 


v/ 


■     96  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

understood.  This  program  called  for  the  construction  in  each 
complete  block  of  32x2x4=256  such  houses.  As  the  blocks 
were  varied  to  adapt  them  to  local  conditions,  the  intersections 
of  the  avenues  and  other  variations  all  tending  to  diminish  the 
number  of  residences  from  the  full  normal  complement,  they 
averaged  a  little  more  than  200  houses  to  the  block.  Work 
was  first  begun  on  the  outside  rows  of  houses  facing  the  front 
streets,  but  in  order  to  build  and  complete  any  house  on  the 
plan  here  followed  it  was  necessary  that  the  sewer  and  the 
subway  carrying  the  pipes  and  conductors  supplying  the  house 
with  water,  gas  and  electricity  should  be  completed  also. 

On  the  front  streets  running  north  and  south,  it  will  be 
remembered,  these  subways  had  been  completed  the  previous 
year,  but  those  on  the  east  and  west  front  streets,  and  the 
secondary  subways  on  the  first  streets,  together  with  the 
service  ways  to  the  individual  houses  remained  to  be  con- 
structed. In  these  subways  gas  and  water  pipes  and  electrical 
conductors  for  lighting  and  telephone  service  were  laid  to 
connect  with  each  house  as  soon  as  the  subway  was  completed 
and  work  begun  on  the  foundation  of  the  house.  The  walls 
and  roofs  of  these  first  rows  of  houses  facing  the  front  streets 
were  mostly  completed  and  the  structures  turned  over  to  the 
finishers  by  the  first  of  July  when  the  work  on  the  second  rows 
facing  the  first  streets  was  taken  up. 

Work  was  now  begun  also  in  preparation  for  paving  the 
main  avenues  and  the  front  streets.  To  this  end,  the  grading 
was  perfected  and  curb  stones  were  placed  to  make  a  roadway 
on  each  of  the  front  streets  fifty  feet  wide,  leaving  twenty-five 
feet  for  lawns  and  shade  trees.  The  roadways  were  paved  with 
a  thick  macadam  pavement  heavily  rolled  and  the  surface 
finished  with  a  dressing  of  cement,  or  on  some  of  the  streets  of 
asphaltum,    making  a  pavement    smooth,    hard    and    strong. 


Progress  in  Fort  Goodzvill.  97 

This  pavement  was,  during  this  season,  laid  on  all  the  main 
avenues  of  the  primary  system  as  well  as  on  the  front  streets 
separating  the  blocks,  and  on  Western  avenue  it  was  carried 
to  the  storage  reservoir  on  the  north  fork  of  the  Uintah,  a 
distance  of  about  nine  miles,  while  in  the  opposite  direction  on 
Eastern  avenue  it  was  continued  to  the  angle  on  the  way  and 
thence  to  the  bridge  over  the  Green  River  canyon.  On  the 
southeast.  South  Meridian,  and  Southwestern  avenues,  the 
pavement  terminated  at  the  main  canal,  and  on  the  avenues  in 
the  opposite  directions  at  the  city  limits  lying  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain  slopes. 

When  the  pavements  were  constructed,  the  railway  tracks, 
which  had  hitherto  served  for  the  transportation  of  men  and 
materials,  were  removed.  With  rubber  tired  automobile  cars 
capable  of  making  thirty  miles  per  hour,  if  desired,  no  railway 
tracks  in  the  streets  were  needed. 

At  this  stage  of  progress  another  proclamation  was  pub- 
lished throughout  the  United  States  as  follows :  "On  and  after 
the  first  day  of  September  next,  citizen  tenantry  will  be 
accepted  to  people  the  city  of  Fort  Goodwill,  Utah,  and  other 
places  that  may  from  time  to  time  be  fitted  for  occupation, 
under  the  following  conditions :  Ejrst— Any  applicant  for 
enrollment  in  the  citizen  tenantry  of  the  United  States  must 
give  evidence  of  ability  to  perform  some  useful  part  in  the  W^ 
public  industries,  and  pass  examination  in  regard  to  his  fitness 
therefor.  Second — ^He  must  be  a  married  man,  or  have  minor 
children  requirmg  him  to  be  an  householder.  Third — His 
age  must  not  exceed  forty  years. 

"Positions  under  this  order  will  be  given,  first:  to  any  one 
in  the  military  ranks  who  can  meet  the  requirements  ;  and,  after 
such  are  provided  for,  to  others  who  may  best  fill  some  require- 
ment of  the  public  service. 


98  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

"Examinations  of  applicants  will  be  held  weekly  on  Tues- 
y  days  in  the  government  buildings  in  all  the  principal  cities 
throughout  the  United  States.  To  each  accepted  citizen 
tenant  the  Government  will  furnish  transportation  for  himself 
and  family  to  his  future  residence,  a  good  house  for  his  home, 
board  for  himself  and  his  family,  schooling  for  his  children,  and 
educational  lectures  and  instruction  daily  for  himself  and  adult 
members  of  his  family,  together  with  fuel,  water,  electric 
lighting,  telephone,  and  all  manner  of  general  services. 

"Each  adult  man  accepted  under  this  order,  will  be 
/  required  to  render  service  in  such  public  industry  as  he  is 
qualified  for,  eight  hours  per  day,  or  forty-eight  hours  per 
week,  of  which  services  he  will  be  taxed  six  hours  per  day,  or 
thirty-six  hours  per  week,  in  payment  for  home,  rent,  board, 
and  public  services  rendered  to  him;  for  the  other  two  hours 
per  day  he  will  be  paid  an  equivalent  for  the  full  product  of  that 
two  hours  service.  Each  adult  woman  will  be  required  to 
work  four  hours  per  day,  or  twenty-four  hours  per  week,  in 
some  appropriate  occupation  to  be  provided  for  her,  of  which 
three  hours  per  day  are  to  be  charged  to  her  in  taxes  for  bene- 
fits received,  and  for  one  hour  per  day  of  which  she  is  to  be' 
paid  a  full  equivalent  for  its  productive  value. 

"Each  minor  child,  after  the  age  of  five  years,  will  be 
required  to  attend  the  public  schools  provided  for  its  education. 

"On  reaching  the  age  of  fifty  years  each  citizen  tenant  will 
be  retired  from  the  public  service  on  a  pension  sufificient  to 
provide  for  his  maintenance  as  long  as  he  may  live. 

"The  citizen  tenants  will  be  tenants  and  employees  of  the 
United  States,  but  in  all  the  rights  and  duties  and  privileges  of 
citizenship  they  will  be  in  the  same  status  of  freedom  as  other 
citizens. 


Progress  in  Fort  Goodwill.  99 

"Provision  will  be  made  for  transferring^  citizen  tenants 
from  one  location  to  another  or  from  one  industry  to 
another  when  they  may  desire  such  transfer,  but  desertion  from 
the  service  at  any  time  will  stop  all  the  benefits  of  such  service, 
including-  the  retiring  pension  after  fifty  years  of  age.  Signed : 
Theodore  Goodwill,  General  commanding." 

Preparatory  to  peopling  the  city  on  the  plan  outlined  in 
this  proclamation,  provisions  were  made  for  conducting  a  dairy  \^ 
and  livestock  business  on  a  scale  sufificient  to  supply  the  needs 
of  a  city  of  175,000  to  200,000  inhabitants.  The  preparations 
making  for  the  next  crop,  including  twenty  square  miles  of 
potatoes,  on  the  high  level  irrigated  district,  have  already  been 
recounted.  The  remainder  of  that  high  level  was  early  in  the 
season  put  under  water  and  power  and  sown  to  forage  crops, 
such  as  drilled  corn,  alfalfa  and  millet,  while  the  wheat  fields 
sown  last  fall  were  all  stocked  with  grass  and  clover  early  in  the 
spring.  A  dairy  sufficient  to  supply  the  prospective  needs  of 
the  city  was  indispensible.  Accordingly  the  government 
agents  were  instructed  to  buy  choice  young  milch  cows  in  the 
best  dairying  regions  of  the  United  States  for  shipment  to  Fort 
Goodwill,  as  called  for,  until  their  number  reached  20,000.  ' 
For  their  accommodation  suitable  barns  and  other  arrange- 
ments were  built  on  the  tract  lying  below  the  city  level,  in  con- 
tinuation of  the  industrial  district,  but  north  of  the  continuation 
of  Western  avenue.  This  dairy  establishment  extended  from 
near  the  border  of  the  storage  reservoir  nearly  two  miles  east- 
ward along  the  avenue  toward  the  city.  The  initial  structure 
of  this  dairy  establishment  was  a  railway  track,  which  was 
brought  up  along  the  bank  of  the  reservoir  until  it  crossed  the 
line  of  the  western  avenue,  and  then  curving  eastward  and 
mounting  a  steel  trestle  to  the  height  of  a  little  more  than  ten 


100 


Perfecting  the  Earth. 


feet  it  was  continued  as  an  elevated  railway  parallel  with  the 
western  avenue. 

On  either  side  of  this  elevated  track  at  the  distance  of 
30  feet  from  its  center  the  cow  barns  were  placed  so  that 
they  stood  in  pairs,  with  their  ends  toward  the  track  exactly 
opposite  each  other,  and  60  feet  apart.  Two  hundred  of  such 
barns  were  constructed  at  this  time,  one  hundred  on  each  side 


X     W^     ^ 


Section  of  Cow  Barn   Frame. 

of  the  track,  forming  a  street  with  the  elevated  railway  down 
its  center.  Each  of  these  buildings  was  constructed  on  steel 
frames  modeled  as  in  the  diagram  and  placed  four  feet  apart  in 
the  building.  The  size  of  each  of  these  buildings  is,  width  33 
feet,  length,  216  feet,  height  of  lower  story,  10  feet,  height  of 
second  story  to  plates,  12  feet.  Each  such  building  will  accom- 
modate in  comfort  100  cows. 

Between  each  of  these  buildings  and  the  next  similar  build- 
ing on  the  same  side  of  the  track,  an  open  space  of  42  feet  was 
left,  making  each  barn  and  its  corresponding  yard  occupy  75 
feet  along  the  track. 


Progress  in  Fort  Goodwill.  101 

Through  the  center  of  each  of  these  barns,  on  the  second 
floor,  a  railway  track  is  laid,  which  extends  on  a  trestle  from 
the  end  of  the  barn  toward  the  elevated  track  in  the  street. 
The  height  of  the  barns  is  carefully  adjusted  to  that  of  the 
elevated  track  so  that  these  tracks  in  each  pair  of  barns  con- 
nect with  a  turntable  in  that  elevated  track,  and  by  this  arrange- 
ment a  carload  of  fodder  can  be  taken  from  the  field  and  run 
directly  into  the  fodder  loft  of  any  one  of  these  buildings  with- 
out unloading,  an  arrangement  that  will  be  appreciated  when  it 
is  remembered  that  on  the  Fort  Goodwill  farms  all  farm 
wagons  are  railway  cars. 

The  wallsand  roofs  of  these  buildings  are  closed  with  a 
special  kind  of  the  wood  pulp  board  previously  mentioned.  For 
this  use  it  is  made  about  one-third  of  an  inch  thick  and  satur- 
ated as  it  is  made  with  plaster  of  paris,  forming  a  hard,  white 
board,  very  pleasant  to  the  eye.  For  roofing,  it  is  further  treated 
with  a  kind  of  paint,  making  it  impervious  to  water.  The  side 
walls  of  the  lower  stories  are  closed  entirely  with  doors,  each  of 
which  is  made  in  two  equal  sections,  upper  and  lower,  in  such 
a  manner  that  the  lower  section  can  slide  up  over  the  upper, 
and  thus  doubled,  the  whole  may  be  swung  on  horizontal 
hinges  up  against  the  ceiling  of  the  cow  floor.  To  make  these 
doors,  the  plaster  of  paris  board  is  strengthened  by  iron  bor- 
ders, and  in  these  borders  all  catches  and  fastenings  are  fixed. 
The  walls  of  the  fodder  lofts  above  are  also  made  in  two  sec- 
tions, of  which  the  lower  one  is  fixed,  while  the  upper  section 
slides  down  over  it  or  is  raised  and  fastened  in  place,  opening 
or  closing  the  wall  as  desired.  The  upper  stories  at  the  ends 
are  fitted  with  large  sliding  doors  over  the  car  tracks,  and 
below  there  are  doors  suitable  for  the  passage  of  keepers  and 
apparatus,  but  excepting  these  doors,  the  end  walls  are  closed 
with  plaster  board  fixed  in  place.    The  ground  floor  of  these 


102  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

cow  barns  is  made  of  paving  brick  laid  in  cement.  It  is 
arranged  with  a  cow  walk  five  feet  wide  on  each  side,  then  a 
bedding  floor  elevated  six  inches  above  the  cow  walk  from 
which  it  is  separated  b}^  a  bevel  faced  cnrb  stone.  Toward  the 
center  from  this  bedding  floor  is  the  stanchion  rail  fifteen  inches 
high  and  the  manger  two  feet  wide ;  within  this,  in  the  center  of 
the  building,  is  the  feeding  alley,  five  feet  wide,  separated  from 
the  mangers  on  either  side  by  a  rail  and  partition  three  feet 
high.  At  the  ends  of  the  building  and  at  intervals  of  forty  feet, 
that  is  between  each  group  of  ten  cows  on  each  side,  and  the 
next  group,  are  cross  walks  for  the  convenience  of  the  keepers. 
The  upper  floors  of  these  buildings  are  of  tile  laid  on  iron,  but 
the  center  strip  over  the  feeding  alley,  between  the  rails  of  the 
car  track,  is  left  open  excepting  for  the  cross  ties  once  in  four 
feet,  formed  by  the  girders  of  the  frames  of  the  building,  and 
for  movable  bridges  at  intervals  for  the  convenience  of  keepers. 
There  is  a  vertical  ladder  from  the  feeding  alley  to  the 
fodder  loft  at  each  cross  walk.  These  barns,  above  and  below 
are  illuminated  at  night  with  incandescent  electric  lights,  and 
the  fodder  lofts  above  are  fitted  with  machinery  both  for  mov- 
ing the  cars  and  for  quicklv  unloading  them  by  electric  power, 
depositing  the  load  wherever  it  may  be  desired. 

To  attend  each  building  with  its  hundred  cows  is  the  duty 
^y^  of  only  one  man  at  a  time.  At  5  a.  m.  the  first  relief  goes  on 
duty,  feeds  the  cov/s  and  makes  their  morning  toilet,  at  7  he 
bathes  and  dries  their  udders,  and  adjusts  the  pneumatic  milk- 
ing machine  to  fifty  of  them  at  a  time,  and  milks  them  by  means 
of  a  pneumatic  exhaust  pump  worked  by  electric  power,  which 
he  manipulates  in  such  a  manner  as  to  produce  the  alternate 
relaxation  and  tension  needed.*     This  milks  the  cows  to  the 

*Since  this  matter  has  been  in  manuscript,  newspaper  descriptions  have  been 
published  of  a  similar  milking  machine  in  actual  use,  but  operated  by  hand 
power  and  applied  to  two  cows  only,  at  a  time. 


Progress  in  Fort  Goodzi'iU.  103 

perfect  satisfaction  both  of  tlie  human  beneficiaries  and  the 
cows  themselves.  The  first  fifty  cows  beino;  milked,  the  keeper 
shifts  the  milking  attachments  with  their  tubes  to  the  other 
side  of  the  feeding  alley  and  repeats  the  operation.  When  the 
milking  is  complete,  he  cleanses  the  pneumatic  calf,  as  he  calls 
the  milking  apparatus,  by  blowing  through  the  tubes  first  cold 
water,  then  hot  water  and  steam,  from  pipes  provided  for  that 
purpose  in  a  room  under  the  trestle  at  the  end  of  the  barn. 
Then  the  cows  arc  again  fed.  At  9  a.  m.  they  are  turned  loose 
in  the  exercising  ranges  for  exercise  and  water.  They  might 
be  watered  in  the  barns,  which  in  the  winter  in  severe  weather 
is  done,  but  to  guard  the  cows  against  the  danger  of  injuring 
their  health  by  laziness  the  watering  troughs  are  placed  at  a 
distance  of  not  less  than  half  a  mile  back  from  the  cow  barns. 
The  cows  having  left  the  barn,  the  attendant  cleans  the  cow 
walk  and  the  bedding  iioor,  throwing  all  manure  outside  to  dry. 
At  12  m.  a  new  supply  of  food  is  placed  in  the  mangers,  and 
the  cows  are  free  to  come  back,  which  they  do  of  their  own 
accord. 

At  1  p.  m.  the  second  relief  comes  on  duty.  He  again 
turns  the  cows  out  for  exercise  and  water  at  2  p.  m.  Then  he 
puts  all  dried  manure,  outside  the  barn,  on  the  automatic  cars 
provided  for  that  purpose  and  sends  it  to  the  fertilizer  factory, 
again  cleans  the  cow  walk  and  the  bedding  floor,  readmits  the 
cows  at  4  p.  m.  and  feeds  them  a  little  at  a  time  as  they  con- 
sume what  he  gives  them.  At  7  p.  m.  he  again  milks  the  cows 
and  afterwards  cleanses  the  milking  apparatus  as  before.  Then 
again  attending  to  the  comfort  of  his  charge,  and  supplying 
them  with  food  according  to  their  appetites,  he  leaves  them  at 
9  p.  m.  Through  the  eight  hours  from  9  p.  m.  to  5  a.  m.  one 
watchman  with  a  beat  like  a  policeman  through  ten  buildings 
is  sufficient  for  every  contingency  likely  to  arise. 


104  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  X. 

At  right  angles  to  the  street  of  dairy  barns  at  its  end  near- 
est the  city  another  Hne  of  stock  barns  and  yards  was  afterwards 
built  on  plans  similar  to  those  already  described,  but  modified 
to  suit  the  special  uses  for  which  they  were  designed.  The 
elevated  railway  track  curved  at  the  end  of  the  line  of  dairy 
barns  and  continued  along  this  street  of  barns  also.  These 
barns  served  to  accommodate  other  bovine  stock  than  milch 
cows  during  the  winter  when  such  cattle  could  not  be  put  to 
pasture,  and  here  were  kept  2,000  saddle  horses  also,  for  school 
exercises,  and  for  the  use  of  couriers  in  the  mountain  wilds. 

Behind  the  cow  barns  toward  the  north  the  land  is  laid 
out  in  parallel  strips  300  feet  wide  extending  back  from  two  to 
three  and  one-half  miles  to  where  the  mountain  slopes  became 
too  steep  for  their  purpose ;  or  rather,  since  20  feet  was  fenced 
off  from  the  border  of  each  such  strip  to  contain  a  water  pipe 
and  a  double  row  of  forest  trees,  they  were  but  280  feet  wide. 
'These  are  the  exercising  ranges  for  the  cows.  Into  each  such 
strip  four  pairs  of  cow  barns  open,  so  that  when  they  are  turned 
loose  800  cows  occupy  each  such  strip.  At  the  distance  of  half 
a  mile  back  from  the  barns  the  drinking  cups  for  the  cows 
begin ;  they  are  placed  in  the  fences  bordering  the  strips  at 
intervals  of  ten  feet  and  continue  for  a  mile  along  each  side  of 
the  strips. 

These  cups  project,  like  the  cups  of  bird  cages,  from  the 
side  of  the  fence  away  from  the  cows,  the  opening  into  them 
being  just  sufficient  to  allow  one  cow  to  drink  at  a  time.  The 
water  is  admitted  into  each  of  these  cups  by  a  valve  controlled 
by  a  float,  so  that  the  cup  is  kept  full  and  no  water  runs  over. 


The  Live  Stock  Department.  105 

The  water  pipes  which  run  along  the  20  foot  strips  between 
these  ranges  are  connected  with  a  reservoir  on  the  heights 
behind  them,  and  they,  supply  not  only  the  drinking  cups  and 
the  barns,  but  also  serve  to  water  the  shade  trees,  which  in  a 
double  row  along  each  strip,  of  many  kinds  artistically  mingled, 
were  planted  next  year. 

These  have  since  grown  to  fine  proportions,  furnishing 
abundant  shade  and  giving  great  beauty  to  the  district,  besides 
serving  an  excellent  purpose  as  a  windbreak.  Another  con- 
trivance, of  which  there  are  many  in  each  cow  range,  is  curious ; 
these  are  the  flytraps,  which  are  arrangements  of  revolving 
brushes  so  set  that  they  sweep  a  cow  all  over  as  she  passes 
through,  brushing  the  flies  as  they  arise  from  the  cow  into  a 
screenwire  receiver,  where  they  are  eflfectually  trapped.  Each 
such  flytrap  is  arranged  with  a  treadmill  floor  which  skates 
the  cow  through  when  she  enters  it,  and  prevents  her  loitering 
there  to  monopolize  its  benefits ;  the  motion  of  this  floor  re- 
volves the  brushes,  which  are  arranged  to  brush  the  cow's  legs 
and  feet  and  every  part  of  her  body.  It  doesn't  take  a  cow 
long  to  learn  the  use  of  this  apparatus  and  to  enjoy  it  greatly, 
and  it  is  amusing  to  see  a  procession  of  them,  as  one  may  on 
any  warm  day,  tobogganing  through  one  of  these  fly  traps  and 
engaging  in  a  frisky  frolic  with  each  other  as  they  emerge.  So 
eflfective  is  this  arrangement,  that  the  flies  around  these  ranges 

0  7  O 

are  never  very  numerous,  though  the  accumulation  inside  the 
screens  is  considerable.  These  trapped  flies,  dead  and  alive, 
are  fumigated  with  sulphur  at  intervals  and  deposited  in  the 
fertilizing  material.  The  ranges,  too,  are  kept  carefully  cleaned, 
and  this  alone  would  keep  the  flies  within  bounds. 

During  the  winter,  when  water  in  the  open  air  would  be 
frozen  into  ice,  the  supply  to  these  ranges  is  shut  ofT,  and  water 
warmed  to  a  proper  temperature  is  supplied  to  the  cows  in  their 


106  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

stalls  through  a  system  of  pipes  provided  for  that  purpose,  but 
even  then,  excepting  during  severe  storms,  the  cows  are  still 
turned  out  to  exercise  at  the  regular  hours. 

Another  important  division  of  the  Fort  Goodwill  livestock 
is  the  poultry  department.  There  are  about  600  acres  devoted 
to  this  use  (it  is  not  found  profitable  to  crowd  anything)  but 
w/there  are  about  1,000,000  hens  at  all  times  kept  on  hand  here, 
besides  turkeys,  ducks,  and  other  fowls  needed  to  make  the 
assortment  complete.  It  is  needless  to  describe  the  arrange- 
ments; they  are,  of  course,  theuiiD&t'TTSi'fe«t^_of_tlieir  kind. 
Every  improvement  anywhere  discovered  is  at  once  tested,  and 
if  found  to  be  a  real  improvement,  adopted.  All  fowls  are 
hatched  in  incubators,  the  largest  and  best  in  the  world  being 
kept  constantly  in  operation  here,  for  these  poultry  yards  are 
so  conducted  that  their  output  shall  abundantly  supply  every 
want  for  poultry  and  eggs  for  every  inhabitant  of  Fort  Good- 
will, of  the  mining  villages,  the  camps  of  the  forces  temporarily 
employed  in  this  region,  and  for  a  time  even  the  forces 
employed  in  the  Southern  California  field.  And  the  supply 
needed  is  not  small,  for,  as  Henry  George  remarked,  men,  as 
well  as  hen  hawks,  eat  chickens,  and  a  population  exceeding 
half  a  million  eat  a  good  many. 

Closely  connected  with  these  matters  are  the  fertilizer 
works.  These  constituted  a  departure  from  all  previous  large 
scale  farming  so  novel  that  a  description  of  them  must  not  be 
omitted  here. 

Private  enterprise,  for  many  years  before  the  opening  of 
this  narrative,  had  in  several  instances  undertaken  the  cultiva- 
tion of  wheat  and  other  special  farming  on  a  very  large  scale, 
but,  the  object  in  all  these  cases  having  been  the  enrichment 
of  the  proprietor  as  quickly  as  possible  while  the  remote  future 
was  disregarded,  these  bonanza  farms,  as  they  were  called  in 


The  Live  Stock  Department.  107 

the  19th  century,  were  always  located  on  fertile  soil  to  begin 
with,  and,  from  the  first,  entered  upon  a  course  of  progressive 
exhaustion  of  the  earth.  Under  this  governmental  manage- 
ment, however,  the  enrichment  of  any  person  was  no  part  of 
the  program. 

Crops  were  grown  for  food,  not  for  the  market ;  current 
prices  cut  no  figure  in  the  matter,  and  the  remote  future  was  y^ 
cared  for  as  conscientiously  as  the  next  crop.  This  farming 
enterprise  was  designed  to  last  as  long  as  man  should  inhabit 
the  earth,  and  the  managers  made  it  a  point  of  conscience  and 
of  pride  that  the  fertility  of  these  lands,  rich  as  they  were  in  the 
outset,  should  increase  rather  than  diminish  from  the  very 
beginning;  hence  this  rule  was  rigidly  observed,  that  for  every 
crop  taken  ofif.  an  equivalenM-eturn  of  fertilizing  mattexmust 
be  made  to  the  land  from  which  it  was  taken. 

The  physical  and  chemical  examination  yearly  of  every 
part  of  the  soil  under  cultivation  was  a  part  of  the  system 
adopted,  and  in  this  way  all  deficiencies  were  ascertained  and 
corrected. 

A  considerable  part  of  the  supply  of  fertilizing  material  is  ^^ 
derived  from  the  sewerage  of  the  city.  This  is  carried  through 
a  continuation  of  the  main  subway  sewer  girdling  the  city  along 
its  park  front,  down  the  western  slope  from  the  terrace  until  it 
strikes  the  line  of  Western  avenue,  thence  along  the  line  of 
that  avenue  westward  past  the  parks  and  gardens,  past  the 
poultry  ranges  and  the  livestock  and  dairy  districts,  nearly  to 
the  storage  reservoir.  There  it  curves  toward  the  south  past 
the  abattoir  and  the  tanneries,  receiving  the  drainage  of  all 
these  on  its  way.  It  terminates  near  the  main  canal  in  two 
large  basins,  each  having  a  surface  of  about  five  acres.  Only 
one  of  these  basins  receives  the  outflow  at  any  one  time ;  when 
the  basin  in  use  becomes  full,  a  large  quantity  of  lime  is  turned 


108  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

in,  in  the  form  of  whitewash  made  as  thick  as  it  will  flow.  This, 
agitated  by  machinery  with  the  fluid  contents  of  the  basin  until 
thoroughly  mixed,  causes  the  solid  substances  to  sepa- 
rate and  they  are  allowed  to  settle.  Then  the  clear  water  is 
drawn  off  into  the  irrigating  canal  and  the  basin  is  allowed  to 
refill  with  sewerage.  This  process  is  repeated  until  the  deposit 
formed  in  the  basin  is  sufficient  to  cover  its  bottom  to  the  depth 
of  six  to  eight  feet  when  dry.  The  sewerage  is  then  turned  into 
the  other  basin  where  it  receives  the  same  treatment,  while  the 
deposit  in  the  first  dries  and  is  excavated,  the  excavation  and 
removal  of  the  mass  being  done  by  machinery,  of  course. 

As  with  the  farmer  of  old,  so  here,  the  manure  from  the 
stables  and  the  cow  ranges  formed  the  most  bulky  part  of  the 
fertilizing  material.  Here,  however,  manure  is  not  spread  on 
the  fields  with  a  fork  after  the  manner  of  the  old-time  farmer, 
and  the  different  mode  of  application  necessitates  a  different 
treatment.  Here,  as  has  been  mentioned,  the  manure  from  the 
cowbarns  is  thrown  out  daily  and  dried  in  the  sunshine,  a 
process  favored  through  the  greater  part  of  the  year  by  the 
aridity  of  the  climate.  This  dried  material  is  then  put  on  cars 
which  remove  it  to  the  grinding  mills.  These  are  in  form  much 
like  great  meat  cutting  machines.  In  the  hoppers  of  these, 
this  dried  manure  is  mingled  in  due  proportion  with  the  deposit 
from  the  sewerage  and  the  combination  is  reduced  to  a  coarse 
powder.  From  these  mills  the  ground  manure  is  delivered  on 
carrier  belts  which  convey  it  to  another  line  of  automatic  cars 
running  on  elevated  tracks  through  the  tops  of  a  series  of  sheds 
fitted  to  receive  and  store  the  fertilizing  material  into  which 
they  drop  their  loads.  This  is  the  main  bulk  of  the  fertilizer 
used;  there  is,  however,  another  and  stronger  mixture  pro- 
duced in  large  quantities,  which  is  stored  by  itself  to  be  used 
according  to  the  requirements  of  special  localities  or  special 


The  Live  Stock  Department.  109 

crops.  In  the  poultry  department  of  Fort  Goodwill,  in  which 
the  ranges  are  great  enough  to  afford  much  freedom  of  exercise 
for  the  fowls  but  not  to  supply  any  considerable  portion  of  their 
food  as  a  natural  product  of  the  soil,  in  order  to  keep  the  health 
of  the  fowls  and  the  production  of  eggs  at  their  highest  point 
much  animal  food  is  required  and  also  a  free  supply  of  the 
limey  constituents  of  bone.  To  meet  this  need,  the  heads  and 
all  parts  not  desired  for  food  of  the  animals  slaughtered  at  the 
general  abattoir  are  cut  up  by  machinery  and  dried  and  crushed 
before  any  decomposition  can  take  place.  The  product  result- 
ing is  given  freely  to  the  fowls,  and  after  it  is  sorted  over  and 
mostly  eaten  by  them,  the  remaining  parts  are  swept  up  with 
the  droppings  and  conveyed  to  a  special  mill,  where,  together 
with  all  bones  collected  from  the  city  kitchens  and  dining 
rooms,  and  all  vegetable  ashes,  the  mass  is  dried  and  ground 
to  form  the  Fort  Goodwill  phosphate. 

In  due  time  the  hundred  square  miles  of  wheat  fields  were 
harvested,  the  wheat  threshed,  put  in  sacks  and  delivered  on 
cars  at  the  sides  of  the  fields,  all  at  one  operation,  by  combined 
machines  moved  across  the  field  in  the  same  manner  that  the 
plows  and  seed  drills  were  moved  at  the  time  of  the  sowing. 
A  rack  attached  to  the  harvester  gathered,  also,  as  much  of  the 
straw  as  it  was  desired  to  save,  the  amount  being  regulated  by 
the  height  at  which  the  grain  was  cut,  and  delivered  it  at  the 
side  of  the  field  where  it  was  received  by  other  machines  and 
compressed,  put  on  cars,  and  taken  to  storage  barns  in  the 
stock  district.  The  yield  of  this  first  crop  was  excellent, 
amounting  altogether  to  1,800,000  bushels. 

As  soon  as  the  wheat  was  removed  the  ground  was  again 
irrigated  to  promote  the  growth  of  young  grass  and  clover,  and 
very  soon  all  cattle  other  than  cows  at  the  time  giving  milk, 
were  turned  into  these  fields  to  pasture. 


110  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

Other  machinery  adapted  to  various  uses  on  these  irri- 
gated lands  had  been  prepared.  The  twenty  square  miles  of 
potatoes,  which  early  in  June  had  been  planted  on  the  upper 
district,  were  planted  by  power  planters  which  cut  the  seed  into 
pieces  of  the  proper  size,  dropped  them  eight  inches  apart,  and 
covered  them  in  shallow  trenches  which  the  machine  plowed 
as  it  went,  forming  rows  four  feet  apart.  At  the  proper  times 
they  were  cultivated  by  machines  moved  in  the  same  manner, 
and  when  in  October  the  time  had  come  for  harvesting  the 
potatoes  the  way  they  were  rolled  out  of  the  ground,  picked 
and  sorted  by  the  power  potato  diggers  was  a  sight  to  open  the 
eyes  of  the  old-time  farmer  and  make  him  bid  good-bye  to  his 
backache  forevermore. 

Preparatory  to  digging  the  potatoes  the  ripened  tops  are 
first  gathered  and  taken  to  the  pulp  mill  to  be  treated  to  pro- 
duce fiber  for  plaster  board  and  other  forms  of  material  used  in 
building.  Then  the  digging  machines,  drawn  across  the  field 
by  the  power  shafts  and  cables,  run  scoops  under  two  rows  at 
a  time,  throwing  the  potatoes  and  earth  on  a  screen  which 
sifts  out  the  earth  and  conveys  it  back  into  the  trenches  from 
which  it  has  been  taken.  All  stones  and  clods  are  sorted  out 
and  rejected  by  a  gravity  device,  and  the  potatoes  are  sorted 
into  three  grades.  Those  small  enough  to  pass  through  an 
inch  and  a  quarter  screen  are  saved  for  food  for  swine,  poultry 
and  other  stock ;  those  larger  than  that,  but  small  enough  to 
pass  through  a  two  and  a  quarter  inch  screen,  are  reserved  for 
seed,  and  all  larger  than  that  are  kept  for  human  use. 

All  are  carried  along  on  a  conveyance  attached  to  the 
machine  for  that  purpose  and  delivered  on  the  cars  at  the  side 
of  the  field. 

Of  this  first  crop  of  potatoes  there  were  of  all  sorts  some- 
thing more  than  1,500,000  bushels.    This  land  from  which  the 


The  Live  Stock  Department.  Ill 

potatoes  had  been  gathered  was  the  first  to  receive  a  dressing 
of  the  fertiHzing  material,  the  manufacture  of  which  has  been 
described.  It  was  taken  to  the  fields  in  trolley  cars,  each  fitted 
with  a  hopper  box  and  with  roller  feeding  mechanism  con- 
nected with  the  land  wheels.  On  the  border  of  the  field  the  car 
is  lifted  and  turned,  the  broad  land  wheels  are  attached,  and 
the  car  moves  across  the  field  and  back,  drawn  by  the  power 
cables,  distributing  its  load  at  a  rate  fixed  by  the  feed  gauge  as 
it  goes.  When  the  load  is  spread  the  land  rollers  are  removed 
from  the  car  and  again  as  a  trolley  car  it  returns  for  another 
load. 

Preparatory  to  the  peopling  of  the  city  and  the  final  break- 
ing up  of  the  temporary  camp  on  the  slope  east  of  the  indus- 
trial district  between  the  foot  of  the  city  terrace  and  the 
irrigating  canal,  an  irrigating  ditch  or  small  canal  was  cut 
along  the  foot  of  the  terrace  above  that  slope,  and  when  the 
camp  was  abandoned  this  area  was  irrigated  by  the  old  open 
■ditch  method  and  afterwards  plowed  with  portable  engines 
preparatory  to  planting  it  with  apple  trees  in  the  spring. 

Extensive  orchards  for  plum  and  cherry  trees,  and  gardens 
for  small  fruits  were  at  the  same  time  laid  out  on  the  potato 
land. 

As  fast  as  the  houses  in  the  city  were  completed  the 
accepted  applicants  for  enrollment  in  the  citizen  tenantry,  with 
their  families,  were  installed  in  them.  The  industries  were 
manned  from  their  ranks  under  foremen  promoted  for  merit 
from  the  former  service,  and,  before  the  winter  set  in,  the 
aspect  of  the  city  had  changed  from  that  of  an  industrial  mili- 
tary camp  to  that  of  a  thriving  town  filled  with  happy  people, 
among  whom  were  women  and  children  in  the  usual  propor- 
tions. 


L, 


J 


112  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

To  serve  the  needs  of  these  people,  the  cooking  and  food 
delivery  service  was  moved  into  the  basements  of  the  public 
buildings  which  during  the  preceding  winter  had  served  as 
barracks  for  the  army  of  occupation.  These  buildings  now 
received  their  permanent  fittings  and  were  transformed  to  suit 
their  final  uses.  The  laundry  department  continued  its  ser- 
vices to  the  whole  people  in  its  original  site,  and  the  lectures, 
which  had  been  a  routine  part  of  the  instruction  of  the  army, 
were  continued  as  an  adjunct  of  the  schools  and  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  the  new  adult  population.  Examinations,  for  honors 
and  promotion,  on  the  subject  matter  of  these  lectures  were 
adopted  for  the  purpose  of  cultivating  among  these  people  the 
habit  of  careful  attention,  and  the  regular  hours  and  the  system 
prevailing  in  everything  greatly  promoted  the  lecture  going 
habit. 


I 


Actvities  of  the  year  ipi6.  113 


CHAPTER  XI. 

With  the  close  of  this  season  of  1915  Fort  Goodwill  had 
assumed  normal  conditions.  The  works  of  that  season  in  this 
region  had  again  given  employment  to  the  greater  part  of  the 
army,  though  a  division  somewhat  larger  than  that  of  the 
previous  year  had  remained  to  push  forward  the  works  in 
southern  California.  Again,  for  the  winter,  the  great  body  of 
the  army  was  returned  to  the  San  Bernardino  district,  where  •^^''^ 
they  gave  the  work  in  the  quarries  of  the  San  Jacinto  and  on 
the  mysterious  foundations  in  the  valley  of  the  Santa  Margarita 
a  tremendous  push,  while  many  other  auxiliary  works  were 
advanced  in  proportion.  With  the  return  of  spring,  the  ener- 
gies of  two-thirds  of  the  army  were  again  applied  in  Utah. 
This  season,  the  irrigating  works  were  pushed  as  never  before. 

Toward  the  construction  of  the  great  dam  on  the  Green 
River  canyon,  the  rocky  bed  had  been  cleared  and  carved  to 
receive  the  masonry,  and  five  courses  of  granite,  each  three  feet 
thick,  had  been  laid  all  solid  in  cement  across  the  floor  of  the 
canyon.  This  structure  did  not  yet  reach  entirely  across  the 
canyon,  but  it  measured  more  than  half  a  mile  from  end  to  end 
and  433  feet  from  front  to  back.  Behind  this  foundation  a  pond 
was  formed,  and  over  it,  all  through  the  winter  and  the  floods 
of  spring,  the  river  poured,  finding  here  the  hardest  and  most 
indestructible  bed  in  all  its  course.  With  the  return  of  spring 
the  quarries  of  granite  on  the  heights  near  by,  from  which  the 
stone  for  this  dam  was  taken,  were  enlarged.  Ten  thousand 
stone  cutters,  each  working  with  power  chisels  and  every  device 
that  could  make  their  work  effective,  were  fitting  the  great 
blocks  each  to  the  place  for  which  it  was  measured  in  the  plan. 


114  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

From  the  quarries  and  stone  yards  above,  a  broad  belt  of 
tramways  led  down  the  slope  to  this  base  of  the  great  dam, 
and  on  these  tramways  the  blocks  of  dressed  stone,  each 
mounted  on  a  truck  and  controlled  by  a  cable,  were  passing 
down  continually,  and  the  empty  trucks  were  as  continually 
ascending.  On  the  surface  of  the  dam  below,  these  trucks  with 
their  loads  were  switched  onto  movable  tracks  along  which 
they  ran  to  the  places  where  the  stone  was  needed ;  with  all 
this,  of  course,  there  was  everywhere  hoisting  machinery  and 
every  convenience  for  handling  the  stone.  Over  the  edge  of  the 
pond  behind  this  dam  of  masonry  was  stretched  a  double  track 
of  strong  wire  cables  along  which  in  continuous  procession 
came  dumping  baskets  each  loaded  with  a  ton  or  more  of  earth, 
which  they  dropped  in  the  water  just  behind  the  stonework. 
This  earth  was  taken  from  the  excavations  made  for  the  irri- 
gating canals,  the  trolley  roads  along  their  banks  bringing  it 
to  deposit  here  from  long  distances  up  the  White  River  canal 
on  the  left  bank  and  from  the  Green  River  canal  on  the  right. 

This  season  added  150  feet  to  the  height  of  the  dam, 
making  its  height  165  feet.  Up  the  White  river  in  Colorado, 
at  the  other  end  of  the  canal  on  the  left  bank,  the  great  175 
feet  dam  was  pushed  in  like  manner,  and  completed  with  the 
close  of  the  season,  and  when  work  on  the  Green  River  dam 
was  renewed  in  the  spring  of  1917  the  waters  of  the  White 
river  were  flowing  through  the  canal  into  the  great  Green 
River  reservoir.  This  year,  too,  the  system  of  irrigation  on  the 
wheat  fields  of  1914-15  was  changed  from  the  surface  to  the 
subsoil  method.  In  making  this  change,  the  power  system 
being  already  on  the  ground  saved  a  world  of  work.  Trenches 
from  three  to  four  feet  deep,  ten  feet  apart,  and  only  six  inches 
wide  at  the  bottom,  were  cut  across  the  fields  by  machines 
drawn  by  the  power  shafts  and  cables  in  the  same  manner  as 


1/ 


Actvitics  of  the  year  igi6.  115 

the  plows  and  reapers  were  moved;  perforated  pipes  were  laid 
in  these  trenches  and  covered  with  a  foot  of  crushed  stone. 
Cross  pipes  connected  them  at  intervals  to  equalize  the  circu- 
lation of  the  water,  and  to  adapt  the  system  to  varying  levels 
each  level  was  shut  ofY  by  itself  and  connected  with  the  higher 
parts  by  float  valves,  so  that  the  water  could  nowhere  rise 
higher  than  six  inches  below  the  surface  of  the  ground.  Then 
the  trenches  were  refilled  with  earth,  and  after  this  the  irriga- 
tion of  the  fields  only  needed  that  the  water  should  be  turned 
on  and  shut  off  at  a  valve  at  the  proper  times  and  the  mellow 
surface  of  the  ground  remained  unmelted  and  untrodden  from 
seed  time  to  harvest. 

Two  hundred  square  miles  of  new  land  this  season  were 
fitted  for  irrigation  and  put  under  power  in  the  White  River 
district,  and  now  there  was  a  farm  under  cultivation  amply 
large  enough  to  feed  the  army  and  the  people  of  the  towns,  to 
produce  enough  of  all  kinds  of  food  needed  which  it  was  pos- 
sible to  produce  in  this  region,  with  an  excess  for  exchange,  / 
and  to  permit  a  proper  rotation  of  crops,  and  everything  was 
done  by  the  most  effective  methods  that,  under  an  ideally  per- 
fect system  of  agriculture,  could  be  devised. 

But  these  works  were  designed  not  only  to  feed  the  army 
and  the  people  of  Fort  Goodwill,  but  to  make  all  this  arid 
desert  of  the  west  bud  and  blossom  like  a  garden.  Anticipating 
the  need,  when  the  great  dam  on  the  Green  River  canyon 
would  be  completed,  work  was  now  pushed  with  renewed 
energy  and  tripled  force  on  the  tunnelled  canal  and  its  con- 
tinuation on  the  south  side  of  the  mountain  to  the  new  reser- 
voir on  Prices  river.  And  preliminary  work  was  now  begun 
to  found  and  build  another  city  as  large  as  Fort  Goodwill,  to 
be  the  center  of  the  new  agricultural  district  here  to  be  devel- 
oped.   According  to  the  plan  adopted  by  the  management  of 


x/ 


116  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

these  campaigns  of  peace  and  usefulness,  certgjii  conditions 
were  required  in  n  tnw"  sitP,  which  may  be  specified  thus : 
1st,  a  sufficient  supply  of  good  water  must  be  attainable ;  2gd, 
nTbrder  to  provide  for  the  drainage  of  sewers  into  the  agricul- 
tural land  where  the  organic  matter  which  they  carry  may  be 
restored  to  the  earth  and  not  be  wasted  nor  become  a  source 
of  pollution  to  the  waters  of  the  region,  the  town  site  must  be 
on  a  higher  level  than  the  neighboring  agricultural  land ;  3rd^ 
in  order  to  distribute  the  water  through  the  town  by  its  own 
pressure  it  was  held  desirable  that  there  should  be  other  land 
in  the  vicinity  at  a  higher  level  than  the  town  site,  though  this 
condition  might  be  dispensed  with  if  necessary  by  the  substitu- 
tion of  power  water  works  ;  4th,  convenience  of  access  between 
a  town  and  its  tributary  territory  is  necessary,  and  the  beauty  of 
its  surroundings  should  be  considered. 

When  the  Fort  Goodwill  and  San  Bernardino  railway  was 
constructed,  two  years  before,  it  was  found  best  to  cross  the 
canyon  of  the  Green  river  a  little  below  the  mouth  of  the 
Uintah,  to  its  east  side,  and  to  lay  the  course  of  the  road  down 
the  canyon  for  about  a  hundred  miles  toward  the  south  on 
that  side  of  the  river.  The  last  six  or  eight  miles  of  this  course, 
after  crossing  about  twenty  miles  of  plain,  skirts  along  the  foot 
of  a  mesa  or  plateau  lying  on  the  east  side  of  the  railway.  This 
is  part  of  a  large  mesa  occupying  the  angle  between  the  Green 
and  the  Grand  rivers,  which  has  a  length  of  about  thirty  miles 
and  an  outline  much  like  the  continent  of  South  America.  The 
level  of  this  plateau  lies  above  that  of  the  main  irrigating  canal 
planned  for  this  region,  but  the  surveys  had  shown  that  by 
constructing  an  aqueduct  across  the  canyon  of  thg  Grand  river 
from  a  group  of  high  mountains  on  the  east  side  of  that  chasm, 
water  enough  could  be  obtained  not  only  to  supply  the  needs 
of  the  city  to  be  built  there,  but  also  to  make  a  garden  of  the 


Actvities  of  the  year  iqi6.  117 

entire  plateau.    This  essential  condition  being  met,  a  beautiful 

terrace  on  the  northwestern  part  of  the  mesa  just  above  the^^ 

bend  of  the  railway  was  selected  for  the  site  of  the  new  city, 
and  Mount  Ceres  was  the  name  chosen  for  it.  Here,  however, 
great  preparatory  works  were  necessary  to  bring  the  water  to 
the  ground  before  this  site  could  be  habitable  for  more  than  a 
working  force  whose  needs  could  be  supplied  by  railway. 
There  was  a  great  aqueduct  to  be  built  across  the  canyon  of  the 
Grand  river  at  an  enormous  height,  and  girdling  canals  must 
be  constructed  about  the  mountains,  and  a  reservoir  built  to 
collect  the  water  from  a  region  to  all  appearance  as  dry  as 
Sahara.  These  works  were  now  undertaken.  To  complete 
them,  two  or  three  years  would  be  needed  before  the  city  could 
be  built,  but  there  was  not  here,  as  there  had  been  at  Fort 
Goodwill,  any  pressing  need  for  its  immediate  building. 

In  laying  out  the  city  of  Mount  Ceres  the  same  general 
plan  was  followed  as  that  adopted  for  Fort  Goodwill,  but  it[^ 
was  pursued  without  hurry  by  a  moderate  force  of  from  2,000 
to  4,000  men,  for  whose  support  on  the  ground  provision  was 
made. 

In  the  San  Bernardino  district,  meanwhile,  the  quarries  of 
the  San  Jacinto  were  kept  running  with  the  maximum  ioro^^ 
employed,  and  the  stone,  all  cut  to  specifications  and  marked 
for  its  place,  was  piling  up  over  miles  and  miles  of  territory  in 
the  Santa  Margarita  valley  and  across  the  plain  between  the 
San  Jacinto  mountains  and  Redlands  where  the  grading  and 
excavating  for  foundations  was  going  on.  The  force  engaged 
in  doing  this  grading  and  excavating  had  mostly  been  with- 
drawn during  summer  to  assist  in  the  works  in  Utah,  but  as 
the  season  advanced  and  the  works  for  which  there  was  press- 
ing need  drew  near  completion  the  men  came  back.  All 
through  the  summer,  too,  small  detachments  were  busy  about 


118  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

a  hundred  auxiliary  enterprises.  A  limey  shale,  which  when 
properly  burned,  constituted  the  best  of  portland  cement  with- 
out further  compounding,  had  been  found  in  inexhaustible 
quantities,  and  works  were  constructed  for  preparing  it  on  a 
large  scale.  Great  lime  kilns  had  been  operated  since  the  year 
before.  The  explorations  to  ascertain  the  mineral  and  geo- 
logical resources  of  the  country  were  carried  on  without  inter- 
mission ;  artesian  wells  were  bored  for  exploratory  purposes  at 
regular  intervals  in  all  parts  of  the  region  until  they  penetrated 
the  primeval  granite,  and  all  the  strata  of  which  the  land  is 
built  were  as  well  known  and  as  minutely  mapped  as  the 
surface  of  the  country.  Salt  was  found  to  exist  in  abundance 
in  many  places,  but  at  present  that  was  a  matter  of  no  conse- 
quence. The  sulphur  deposits  which  had  long  been  known  to 
exist  near  the  Mexican  boundary  were  carefully  examined  with 
regard  to  their  extent,  with  the  result  that  preparations  were 
making  to  utilize  them  in  some  manner  not  yet  apparent. 
Copper  ore  was  also  found  in  the  southern  extension  of  the 
San  Bernardino  range.  Up  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Mohave 
desert,  natural  gas  was  found  in  great  abundance,  and  much 
activity  seemed  to  be  centered  about  that  discovery,  every  well 
from  which  gas  flowed  being  carefully  capped  and  closed  in 
the  meanwhile.  The  great  deposits  of  borax  and  soda  in  Death 
valley  were  also  objects  of  much  attention. 

Early  in  September  of  this  year,  train  loads  of  structural 
steel  from  Fort  Goodwill,  mostly  of  a  very  massive  type,  began 
to  arrive  daily  at  San  Bernardino.  Up  to  this  time  the  pro- 
duction of  water  pipe,  rails,  shafting  and  electrical  machinery 
had  overshadowed  all  other  activities  in  the  Fort  Goodwill  iron 
works  and  machine  shops,  but  a  standing  order  was  given,  as 
the  call  for  other  products  slackened,  to  produce  structural  steel 
up  to  the  capacity  of  the  works  and  send  it  to  San  Bernardino. 


Actvities  of  the  year  ipi6.  119 

For  this  steel  a  few  definite  sizes  and  patterns  were  given,  and 
every  piece  was  most  carefully  inspected,  any  flaw  or  imper- 
fection causing  it  to  be  rejected. 

On  the  plateau  about  the  border  of  which  the  great  sub- 
way and  sewer  was  begun  during  the  first  season  of  operations 
in  this  vicinity,  no  great  activity  was  apparent.  Plats  and  plans 
covering  the  whole  tract  were  on  exhibition  in  the  offices  of  the 
department  of  construction  and  all  architects  were  invited  to  t^^^ 
contribute  ideas,  plans  and  drawings,  or  criticisms  tending  to 
perfect  the  future  city  in  beauty  or  convenience. 

As  plans  were  perfected  and  accepted  the  sewer  and  sub- 
way system  tributary  to  the  first  great  girdling  subway,  which 
was  now  nearly  completed,  was  pushed  along  to  serve  the  needs 
of  the  buildings  to  be  erected.  Temporary  buildings  were  con- 
structed to  provide  for  present  needs.  Here  and  there  among 
these  temporary  structures  some  gem  of  a  building  intended 
to  be  permanent  was  in  course  of  construction.  Trees  were 
planted  and  tended  on  every  part  of  the  plateau  under  the  care 
and  management  of  the  landscape  artists,  in  accordance  with 
plans  that  had  been  subjected  to  the  criticism  of  all  and  received 
suggestions  from  whoever  thought  he  could  point  out  an  im- 
perfection or  suggest  an  improvement,  but  deliberation  was  as 
marked  in  all  proceedings  here  as  haste  had  been  m  the  build- 
ing of  Fort  Goodwill.  The  growing  town  had,  meanwhile, 
received  the  name  of  New  Utopia. 

The  catacombs  of  the  quarries  were  growing  to  immense 
proportions,  and  up  on  the  San  Jacinto  mountains  the  absence 
of  browsing  stock  and  the  retention  of  the  water  in  the  ravines 
and  reservoirs  had  already  produced  a  marked  increase  of 
verdure. 


120  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
(1916  continued.) 

During  this  year,  work  on  the  grading  and  the  mysterious 
foundations  in  the  valley  of  the  Santa  Margarita  was  pushed 
with  greater  vigor  than  ever  before.  Even  during  the  rush  of 
the  season,  when  most  of  the  army  were  employed  in  the  Utah 
operations,  more  than  fifty  thousand  men,  exclusive  of  the 
quarrymen  and  those  engaged  in  removing  the  stone  and 
other  materials  to  their  final  locatio'n,  remained  to  push  the 
work  here,  and  great  numbers  of  these  foundation  piers  had 
already  been  built. 

The  district  covered  by  these  works  had  become  well 
defined.  From  a  point  about  four  miles  southwest  of  the 
southern  limit  of  the  New  Utopia  plateau  it  extended  in  a  belt 
five  miles  wide  to  the  distance  of  sixteen  miles  a  little  east  of 
north.  Then  turning  toward  the  northeast  and  preserving  the 
same  width  of  five  miles  it  extended  in  a  direct  line  nearly  to 
the  top  of  the  highest  part  of  the  San  Bernardino  range  of 
mountains,  passing  the  isolated  main  peak  on  its  eastern  flank. 

From  the  point  of  beginning  toward  the  sea,  the  tract 
covered  by  these  works,  instead  of  continuing  in  a  strip  five 
miles  wide,  spreads  out  in  a  fan  or  funnel  shape,  the  northern 
and  western  boundary,  bending  about  the  southern  spur  of 
the  Santa  Ana  hills,  took  a  direction  a  little  south  of  west  and 
continued  in  a  straight  line  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  other,  or 
eastern  margin,  bending  a  very  little  toward  the  west,  crosses 
the  channel  of  the  Santa  Margarita  river  and  also  that  of  the 
San  Luis  Rey,  striking  the  Pacific  about  two  and  a  half  miles 


The  Mysterious  Foundations.  121 

south  of  the  latter.    The  points  of  intersection  of  these  mar- 
ginal lines  with  the  coast  are  twenty-one  miles  apart. 

Within  these  boundaries,  founded  on  the  bedrock  as  before 
described,  lines  of  foundations  parallel  with  the  eastern  margin 
of  the  tract  were  built  a  quarter  of  a  mile  apart ;  twenty-one 
such  lines  including  the  margins  in  that  part  of  the  tract  that 
is  five  miles  wide. 

In  the  lines  these  foundations  were  built  exactly  264  feet 
apart  from  center  to  center  and  carefully  aligned  with  those  in 
other  lines  so  that  straight  lines  from  margin  to  margin  264 
feet  apart  would  pass  over  the  exact  center  of  a  foundation  pier 
in  each  of  the  21  lines. 

In  the  marginal  lines  these  piers  were  made  so  massive 
that  they  formed  a  continuous  bed  of  masonry  300  feet  broad. 
The  foundation  piers  in  the  inner  lines  were  50  feet  square  at 
the  top,  the  bases  greater ;  they  rested  on  the  bed  rock,  how- 
ever far  below  the  surface  of  the  ground  that  might  be,  and 
were  finished  at  such  a  height  always  that  a  straight  line  drawn 
from  the  top  of  any  pier  to  the  tops  of  the  neighboring  piers  in 
the  same  line  and  also  in  the  lines  on  either  side  would  pass 
clear  of  all  obstructions,  that  is,  in  case  of  the  inside  lines,  leave 
a  clear  line  of  sight  from  the  top  of  any  pier  to  the  top  of  the 
nearest  pier  in  either  one  of  four  directions.     This  work  was 
going  on  within  the  area  above  described  at  hundreds  of  places 
at  the  same  time,  but  thus  far  mostly  within  the  belt  only  five 
miles  wide.    Together  with  what  had  previously  been  accom- 
plished, the  foundations  completed  this  year  were  more  than 
enough  to  cover  twenty  square  miles  in  the  arrangement  de- 
scribed without  a  gap.    The  entire  area  of  the  tract,  however, 
was  a  little  more  than  450  square  miles. 

While  this  work  was  going  on,   the   massive  structural 
steel  was  accumulating  faster  and  faster  up  at  San  Bernardino, 


122  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

each  size  and  pattern  of  it  in  immense  piles,  of  each  of  which 
each  piece  was  ahke. 

In  connection  with  tliis  steel,  a  use  was  found  for  the  sul- 
phur beds  and  the  copper  mines  previously  mentioned.  At  the 
sulphur  beds  works  were  constructed  for  the  production  of 
sulphuric  acid,  and  at  the  copper  mines  the  ore,  which  was  of  a 
low  grade  but  easily  worked,  was  crushed  and  leached  with  a 
solution  of  sulphuric  acid  piped  there  from  the  acid  works,  and 
a  beautiful  solution  of  blue  vitriol  was  obtained  in  quantities 
as  large  as  might  be  desired.  Meanwhile,  at  the  steel  deposi- 
taries at  San  Bernardino  great  vats  were  constructed  with 
roller  ways  leading  into  them  from  the  stacks  of  steel.  These 
vats  were  fitted  with  electrical  apparatus,  the  sulphate  of  copper 
solution  from  the  leaching  vats  at  the  mines  was  piped  into 
them,  and  then  a  new  industry  was  started,  namely,  the  electro 
plating  of  all  this  steel  with  copper,  which  was  done  very 
heavily  and  in  the  most  perfect  manner  possible. 

One  hundred  and  forty  miles  north  of  San  Bernardino  and 
twenty  miles  east,  is  the  depressed  area  which  from  the  time 
the  country  was  first  explored  has  been  known  as  Death  valley. 
It  is  160  feet  below  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  therefore  the  heat 
of  the  desert  is  more  intense  there  than  on  higher  levels. 
No  rain  was  ever  known  to  fall  there,  and  there  the  alkalies  of 
the  desert  had  accumulated  for  ages. 

This  deposit  had  long  been  a  source  from  which  unlimited 
quantities  of  borax  had  been  obtained.  Forty  miles  further 
south,  and  thence  forty  miles  to  the  eastward,  was  the  heart  of 
the  natural  gas  district  which  had  been  discovered  by  the 
artesian  well  exploration. 

The  eastern  side  of  Death  valley  is  bordered  by  a  range  of 
mountains  reaching  the  height  of  6,000  feet,  known  as  the 
Black  mountains,  and  the  southern  part  of  this  range  bends  to 


The  Mysterious  Foundations.  123 

the  eastward  terminating  in  a  spur  which  Hes  25  miles  south- 
east of  Death  valley.  Between  this  spur  and  another  termi- 
nating 18  miles  further  north,  on  the  east  side  of  the  range,  lies 
an  elevated  irregular  plain  sloping  toward  the  east.  On  these 
heights  rain  falls  in  its  season,  and  when  it  falls  there  is  a 
considerable  stream  of  water  poured  across  this  rugged  plain 
into  the  Salt  Lake  of  Southern  California,  which,  17  miles  long 
and  from  one  to  three  miles  wide,  stretches  from  north  to  south 
across  the  foot  of  the  broad  valley  or  rugged  plain  mentioned, 
and  past  the  foot  of  the  southern  spur  of  the  Black  mountains. 
The  Fort  Goodwill  and  New  Utopia  railway  runs  along  the 
western  border  of  this  lake.  Here,  then,  were  all  the  conditions 
essential  to  a  town  site.  The  stream  pouring  down  from  the 
Black  mountains  into  the  Salt  lake,  though  but  a  dry  bed 
through  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  when  its  waters  should  be 
stored  in  a  suitable  reservoir  would  furnish  an  ample  supply  for 
a  moderate  sized  town,  and  for  gardens  in  the  valley.  The 
slope  along  the  margin  of  the  lake,  with  the  railway  passing 
across  it,  afiforded  a  convenient  site  for  accessibility,  and  with 
its  outlook  across  the  lake  to  another  range  of  mountains  on 
the  east  and  over  the  future  gardens  in  the  valley  above  to  the 
Black  mountains  in  the  west,  while  the  landscape  opened  up 
over  the  broad  plain  of  the  Mohave  desert  on  the  south  ;  the 
site  promised  to  be  as  beautiful  as  one  could  wish.  On  this 
desert  plain,  a  short  distance  to  the  southward,  was  white 
quartz  sand  in  unlimited  quantities ;  this,  with  the  borax  and 
soda  of  Death  valley,  and  the  natural  gas  near  by,  furnished  all 
the  elements  needed  for  the  manufacture  of  glass  in  unlimited 
quantities. 

Here,  then,  a  town  was  built,  consisting  of  four  of  the  Fort 
Goodwill  blocks  for  residence  purposes,  and  an  enormous  glass 


124  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

factory  by  the  side  of  the  railway  below  as  its  only  industry, 
and  the  name  given  to  this  town  was  Vitre. 

Since  many  years  before  the  time  of  which  we  speak,  it  had 
become  a  notable  fact  that  steel,  glass,  and  most  of  the  staple 
products  of  industry  had  become  the  products  of  "  plants  "  to 
a  far  greater  degree  than  they  were  the  products  of  labor. 
Some  human  labor,  of  course,  was  needed  to  tend  the  plants 
and  keep  them  in  a  productive  condition,  but  it  was,  as  it  is 
yet,  the  size  and  perfection  of  the  plant  rather  than  the  force 
employed  that  determined  the  output,  and  this  glass  plant  was 
immense  beyond  anything  of  its  kind. 

What  use  could  possibly  be  made  of  the  immense  quanti- 
ties of  glass  that  could  be  produced  here  was  something  that 
the  world  could  not  imagine,  especially  since  the  supply  of 
glass  of  all  kinds  had  for  a  long  time  so  far  exceeded  the 
demand  that  many  glass  factories  had  been  closed  and  many 
glass  merchants  reduced  to  bankruptcy  within  recent  years. 
So  out  of  keeping  with  all  apparent  uses  this  military  glass 
factory  seemed,  that  the  idea  became  current  that  the  manage- 
ment of  the  army  was  insane,  an  idea  to  which  the  mysterious 
foundations,  the  great  accumulations  of  steel  at  San  Bernardino 
and  the  copper  plating  works  connected  therewith  had  pre- 
viously given  rise,  and  which  was  sedulously  promulgated  by 
the  capitalists  of  the  land.  But  it  was  replied  that  all  this,  and 
especially  this,  had  been  considered  by  the  board  of  savants 
to  whom  the  plans  had  been  submitted  before  the  military 
industrial  program  had  been  entered  upon ;  beyond  this,  not  a 
word  in  regard  to  the  purpose  of  all  these  works  did  the 
authorities  divulge.  Their  magnitude  made  them  a  world's 
wonder  and  such  they  remained  until  their  progress  made  their 
form  and  purpose  evident. 
^^Meanwhile,  however,  the  facts  that  these  works  were  cost- 


The  Mysterious  Foundations.  125 

ing-  the  people  nothing,  that  the  army  had  now  become  wholly 
self  supporting,  and  that  while  nearly  200,000  families  had  now 
escaped  from  poverty  into  ease  and  plenty  in  the  citizen 
tenantry,  the  amelioration  of  their  condition  had  led  to  reforms 
which  wrought  a  corresponding  improvement  in  the  condition 
of  the  masses  everywhere,  prevented  any  formidable  opposition 
which  might  otherwise  have  arisen. 

The  capitalists,  however,  were  inconsolable.  Business, 
they  declared,  was  ruined,  their  occupation  was  gone,  and  these 
were  the  hardest  times  that  history  has  recorded,  all  in  conse- 
quence of  the  detestable  socialistic  policy  that  had  been  pursued 
in  the  management  of  the  army. 

Among  the  millions  of  the  people,  however,  these  capital- 
ists were  but  few,  and  the  changes  which  had  taken  want  and 
the  fear  of  want  from  the  millions  had  not  put  that  few  in  any 
danger  of  want ;  the  same  abundance  of  nature's  storehouses 
which  had  been  opened  to  the  millions  was  open  to  them  also. 
It  was  their  power  to  oppress,  only,  that  had  been  taken  away 
from  them,  and  the  people  said,  if  this  be  madness,  give  us 
more  of  it. 

From  this  it  resulted  that  in  the  presidential  election  which 
took  place  in  November,  1916,  the  existing  administration  was 
re-elected  by  a  majority  that  was  simply  overwhelming  in  every 
state  of  the  Union,  and  "businessmen's  government"  was  finally 
and  hopelessly  turned  down. 


126  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

^y  The  population  of  Fort  Goodwill  had  now  grown  to  some- 
thing more  than  320,000  of  whom  more  than  300,000  were  of 
the  citizen  tenantry. 

y^  The  labor  required  of  all  adult  citizens  according  to  the 
conditions  of  enrollment  in  the  citizen  tenantry  had  promoted 
a  very  active  and  happy,  as  well  as  orderly,  mode  of  life  among 
the  inhabitants. 

^  The  four  hours  of  labor  per  day  required  of  women  sufificed 
to  permit  the  organization  of  a  corps  of  housekeepers  who, 
under  the  charge  of  forewomen  of  their  own  selection,  kept  all 
the  public  buildings  of  the  city  neat  and  attractive  while  the 
task  aflforded  scope  for  a  talent  in  which,  fortunately,  many 
women  excell  and  which  it  is  desirable  to  cultivate  in  all.  From 
among  the  women,  also,  was  organized  a  corps  of  table  waiters 
who  serve  in  the  public  dining  rooms,  in  which  service  mechan- 
ical carrying  devices  reduced  the  labor  to  a  minimum.  Women 
also  attend  the  spinning  and  spooling  machinery  and  the  looms 
in  the  cotton,  woolen  and  silk  mills,  as  they  did  under  the  old 
regime.  And,  as  of  yore,  women  are  the  teachers  in  the  pri- 
mary grades  of  the  public  schools.  Many  of  them  also  serve  as 
lecturers  in  the  educational  courses  and  fill  professorships  in 
the  higher  grades  of  schools,  for  these  positions  are  open  to 
every  one  who  can  demonstrate  ability  to  hold  an  audience  and 
can  pass  the  examinations  and  accomplish  the  purpose  of  the 
lectures,  without  regard  to  sex  or  previous  occupation. 

The  systematic  employment  and  public  life  of  the  Fort 
Goodwill  people  proved  a  great  promoter  of  intellectual  life, 
as  did  the  habit  of  close  attention  and  accurate  observation 
which  was  cultivated  in  the  schools. 


Third  Period — ipiy-iQ2i.  127 

The  custom  of  hearing  lectures  daily,  also,  put  the  life  of  • — 
the  people  generally  on  a  far  higher  plane  than  any,  unless  it 
were  some  small,  select  circles  in  any  other  city  up  to  that  time, 
had  attained.  Men,  women  and  children,  alike  had  something 
more  interesting  to  hear  and  to  see,  to  think  of,  and  to  talk  of, 
than  gossip  and  chit-chat. 

In  Fort  Goodwill  the  school  system  is  the  foundation  of  £„-^ 
intellectual  life  for  the  whole  people.  Each  of  the  large  build- 
ings first  erected  at  the  corners  of  the  blocks  is,  in  accordance 
with  the  original  design,  in  its  second  story  a  schoolhouse. 
These  were  sufficient  to  serve  the  needs  of  the  people  for  the 
primary  grades.  For  the  more  advanced  courses  suitable  pro- 
vision was  made  in  the  tract  reserved  for  that  purpose  under 
the  name  of  Education  park. 

Education  being  here  regarded  as  the  object  and  consum-  ^^ 
mation  of  life,  and,  not,  as  in  other  cities  and  former  times  it 
had  been,  as  merely  a  preparation  for  and  incident  in  life, 
required  far  more  ample  accommodations  than  had  been  given 
to  that  object  in  any  former  city  of  like  population.  And  yet, 
whenever  the  weather  would  permit,  which  in  the  delightful 
climate  of  Fort  Goodwill  is  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  a  large 
part  of  the  school  exercises  were  held  in  the  open  air. 

The  trees  in  the  Fort  Goodwill  parks  and  about  the  public 
buildings  in  the  corner  squares,  though  in  vigorous  health  and 
growing  rapidly  under  the  fostering  care  of  the  board  of  for- 
estry, at  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking,  were  yet  too  young 
to  furnish  the  shade  needed ;  but,  to  prevent  the  fixing  of 
indoor  habits  in  teachers  as  well  as  scholars,  awnings  were  . 
erected  under  which  a  part  of  the  exercises  of  every  class  were 
conducted. 

The  methods  of  teaching  adopted  in  Fort  Goodwill  were 
a  radical  departure  from  any  system  previously  in  vogue  else- 


128  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

where,  except  that  of  the  kindergarten,  of  which  the   Fort 
Goodwill  system  is  a  development. 

There  was  a  change  of  purpose,  which  may  be  summarized 
»•  in  the  statement  that  education  rather  than  instruction  was  the 
object  sought,  and  a  change  of  methods  which  strikingly 
appears  in  the  fact  that  nature  was  the  text  book,  no  books 
being  put  in  the  hands  of  the  pupils  for  study.  Libraries  were 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  teachers  and  pupils  alike,  but  teaching 
was  the  work  required  of  live  teachers  and  not  to  be  relegated 
to  dead  print.  The  result  was  that  within  a  year  the  children 
in  the  Fort  Goodwill  schools  became  the  brightest  and  strong- 
est thinkers  in  the  schools  of  the  country.  So  marked  was  this 
fact  that  the  school  boards  of  many  cities  sent  men  for  the 
special  purpose  of  examining  and  reporting  on  the  Fort  Good- 
will school  system. 

One  of  these  inspecting  visitors  was  Professor  X.  from 
Boston,  Mass.,  from  whose  report  we  quote  the  description 
that  follows : 

The  next  morning  after  my  arrival  in  Fort  Goodwill 
I  introduced  myself  to  Colonel  M.  in  charge  of  the  depart- 
ment of  education.  In  the  course  of  our  conversation  I 
chanced  to  remark  that  the  excellent  schools  of  the  city  cer- 
tainly gave  to  the  Fort  Goodwill  children  a  magnificent  prepa- 
ration for  life.  "Preparation  for  Hfe,  sir!"  remarked  the  Colonel,, 
"you  seem  to  be  in  error.  Education  is  not  a  preparation  for 
life,  it  is  life ;  in  so  far  as  anyone  falls  short  of  education  he  falls 
short  of  life.  But  come  with  me  and  let  us  take  a  look  at  the 
children  and  what  they  are  doing." 

We  approached  Education  park  shortly  before  the  second 
morning  session,  and  as  we  drew  near  the  ground  our  ears  were 
greeted  with  the  sound  of  rather  lively  music  accompanied  by 
merry  shouting  and  singing.    Approaching  yet  nearer,  we  per- 


Third  Period — igiy-ig2i.  129 

ceived  that  three  of  the  boys  ha^  constituted  themselves  into  a 
mihtary  band  with  bugle  and  fife  and  drum,  and  they  were 
leading  a  very  lively  procession  in  half  a  march  and  half  a 
dance  to  the  old  tune  of  Captain  Jinks,  to  which  the  procession 
kept  step  while  they  sang  with  variations, 

"I'm  Captain  Jinks  of  the  Horse  Marines, 
I  feed  my  horse  on  corn  and  beans, 
Which  used  to  be  beyond  the  means 

Of  Captain  Jinks  of  the  army. 
I  teach  young  ladies  how  to  dance, 
To  sing  and  dance, 
To  sing  and  dance, 
I  teach  young  ladies  how  to  dance, 
^  I'm  Captain  Jinks  of  the  army. 
I'm  Captain  Jinks  of  the  Horse  Marines 
And  now  we  raise  our  corn  and  beans. 
Such  thmgs  are  quite  within  the  means 
Of  Captam  Jinks  of  the  army." 
"Well,  Colonel,"  I  remarked,  "it  is  pleasant  to  get  rid  of  that 
old-time  wail  of  poverty  that,  like  an  undertone  of  distress,  ran 
through  almost  everything,  even  the  rollicking,  strutting,  devil 
may  care  music  of  Captain  Jinks."    The  Colonel  smiled  assent, 
but  just  then  the  bell  sounded  for  school,  and,  laughing  and 
shouting,  the  children  scattered  to  the  several  awnings  where 
the   teachers  were   to  meet  their  classes.     "This,"  said  the 
Colonel,  "is  a  section  of  the  fourth  grade  observation  class." 
As  the  teacher  called  the  numbers  to  the  number  of  twenty, 
the  children  took  their  places  in  line. 

"We  will  first  hear  what  you  discovered  in  regard  to  the 
substance,"  said  the  teacher.  "Number  one:  What  can  you 
tell  us?" 

"The  substance  was  in  the  form  of  round  masses,  greyish 
white,  hard,  but  not  so  hard  but  I  could  cut  it  with  my  knife, 
it  shaved  fine  like  horn  when  cut,  softened  slowly  when  the' 
shavings  were  put  in  water;  don't  know  what  it  is."     "Very 


130  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

well ;  Number  two :  Can  you  tell  us  anything  that  John  has 
omitted?"  "No."  "Number  three?"  "No."  "Number  four, 
Mary  S.?"  "Yes,  I  found  that  the  powdered  substance  would 
burn  when  put  on  a  hot  iron,  turning  first  brown,  then  black, 
and  smoking  it  smelled  like  burned  bread.  I  believe  the  masses 
are  made  of  dough."  "Very  well ;  go  to  the  head.  William, 
can  you  tell  us  anything  about  the  substance  that  the  others 
omitted?"  "No."  "Number  six?"  "No."  "Number  seven?" 
"No."  "Number  eight?"  "Yes.  They  are  heavier  than  water, 
because  when  dropped  in  water  they  sank.  When  I  scraped 
one  of  the  masses  and  dropped  the  powder  in  water  it  slowly 
sank.  When  I  boiled  the  water  it  mixed  with  it  and  thickened 
it  like  starch.  I  tried  burning  it,  too,  and  noticed  the  same 
smell  like  burning  bread.  I  believe  they  are  made  of  flour." 
"Very  well ;  go  to  the  head.  Number  nine :  Can  you  tell  us 
anything  else  about  the  substance?"  "No."  "Number  ten?" 
"No."  "Number  eleven?"  "No."  "Number  twelve?"  "Yes; 
I  did  not  try  burning  it,  but  I  crushed  it  in  water  and  boiled 
it,  and  noticing  that  it  acted  like  starch,  I  remembered  hear- 
ing my  brother  tell  that  iodine  was  a  test  for  starch,  so  I  got 
a  drop  or  two  of  his  iodine  solution  and  put  it  into  some  of 
the  thickened  water,  and  it  immediately  turned  blue,  prov- 
ing that  the  substance  was  starch.  Then  I  wanted  to  see 
whether  there  was  anything  else  in  it,  so  after  I  had  boiled 
it  well,  I  strained  it  through  a  fine  cloth  and  found  there 
was  a  gummy  substance  that  did  not  easily  go  through,  nor, 
after  I  had  washed  it  well  with  hot  water,  turn  blue  with  iodine, 
and  further  I  found  some  flakes  that  looked  like  bran.  I 
believe  the  masses  are  made  of  whole  wheat  flour. 

The  class  cheered  this  particularly  bright  report.  "Well 
done,"  said  the  teacher,  "go  to  the  head.  Number  thirteen : 
Can  you  tell  us  anything  about  the  substance  that  we  haven't 


Third  Period — ipi/-iQ2i.  131 

heard?"  "No."  "Is  there  anyone  else  that  can?  Let  him  hold 
up  his  hand.  No  one  has  anything  further  to  tell  us  about  it. 
Well,  children  you  have  examined  the  substance  very  well.  It 
consists  of  whole  wheat  flour  made  wet  with  water,  pressed 
into  moulds,  boiled  in  the  moulds  and  dried.  We  will  now 
hear  what  you  have  found  about  the  plant.  Number  thirteen : 
Tell  us  what  you  have  noticed."  The  plant  on  this  occasion 
was  white  clover,  and  the  very  many  noticeable  points  that  it 
presented  gave  almost  every  pupil  a  chance  to  mention  some- 
thing that  the  others  had  omitted.  Those  who  mentioned  some 
point  that  the  others  had  omitted  took  their  places  at  number 
thirteen  until  the  question  had  come  round  to  number  one 
again. 

I  asked  Colonel  M.  whether  it  was  not  found  that  some 
were  dull  and  discouraged  in  the  competition  with  the  particu- 
larly bright  children,  and  he  replied,  "Yes,  but  we  transfer 
particularly  dull  children  to  other  sections  more  suitable  for 
them  until  we  get  them  interested.  As  soon  as  we  get  their 
interest  among  others  of  about  their  own  ability  they  make 
rapid  progress.  The  particularly  bright  children,  too,  are 
transferred  to  other  sections  where  the  race  between  them  is 
kept  lively,  and,  as  you  see,  we  break  the  monotony  by  chang- 
ing the  topic  in  the  same  exercise,  in  this  instance  from  a 
substance  to  a  plant.  Let  us  visit  a  section  of  the  advanced 
class  in  geography,"  said  Colonel  M.,  and  following  him  to 
another  awning,  I  heard  the  teacher  state  this  problem  :  "After 
a  journey  of  unknown  length  taken  during  a  period  of  uncon- 
sciousness, I  find  myself  in  a  country  where  there  are  rugged 
mountains,  some  of  which,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year, 
are  tipped  with  snow.  Some  of  these  mountains  come  down 
to  the  sea,  forming  high,  rugged  promontories  enclosing  deep, 
landlocked  bays.    The  country  appears  to  be  well  wooded  with 


132      .  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

deciduous  trees,  and,  though  mountainous  as  a  whole,  there  are 
extensive  grassy  plains  and  great  forests.  Much  of  the  land 
has  been  converted  into  farms.  Wheat,  oats,  corn,  apples, 
plums  and  peaches,  grass  and  clover  are  growing  there,  and 
sheep,  cattle  and  horses  abound.  I  see,  too,  that  there  are 
railways  here,  and  electric  lights  and  power,  that  the  people 
are  well  up  to  the  times  in  their  ways  of  doing  their  work,  and, 
passing  among  them,  I  find  that  their  language  is  English. 
When  I  am  on  such  journeys  as  this,  however,  I  am  invisible 
and  can  ask  no  questions.  It  being  a  season  of  the  year  when 
the  days  and  nights  are  nearly  equal,  I  notice  that  the  sun  at 
noon  is,  as  nearly  as  can  be  ascertained  without  instruments, 
half  way  between  the  zenith  and  the  horizon,  but,  on  watching 
it,  one  thing  strikes  me  strangely,  instead  of  moving  from  left 
to  right,  as  I  have  always  seen  it  move,  the  sun  is  passing 
across  the  sky  from  right  to  left.  Think  of  this  for  five  minutes 
and  tell  me  where  I  am." 

When  the  five  minutes  were  up  the  teacher  asked  all  who 
thought  they  could  locate  the  region  described  to  raise  their 
hand.  Nearly  all  the  class  did  so.  "John  :  You  may  tell  where 
the  place  in  which  I  find  myself  is  located.''  "New  Zealand," 
said  John. 

"Are  the  rest  of  the  class  in  accord  with  this  answer?  Any- 
one who  thinks  it  is  elsewhere,  hold  up  the  hand." 

No  hand  was  raised.  "Then  you  are  all  agreed  that  it  is 
New  Zealand.  William :  Tell  us  why  you  conclude  that  it  is 
New  Zealand." 

"From  the  nature  of  the  crops  and  the  forest,  also  from  the 
height  of  the  sun  at  noon  when  the  days  and  nights  are  equal, 
the  location  is  in  the  temperate  zone  and  in  the  latitude  of  the 
forties.  But,  since  the  sun  is  moving  from  right  to  left,  instead 
of  from  left  to  right,  it  is  in  the  south  temperate  zone.     The 


Third  Period — igij-igzi.  133 

lands  lying  in  that  latitude  are  South  Africa,  the  southern  part 
of  South  America,  South  Australia,  New  Zealand  and  a  few 
small  islands.  By  the  description  it  is  not  a  small  island.  In 
South  Africa  the  English  language  is  spoken  in  part,  but  the 
character  of  the  country  is  wholly  different  from  the  descrip- 
tion given.  It  might  possibly  be  some  part  of  the  coast  of 
Chile,  but  there  the  language  spoken  is  Spanish.  Australia 
is  not  rugged  enough  on  any  part  of  its  coast  to  fit  the  descrip- 
tion, and  it  is  also  too  arid.  There  remains  only  New  Zealand, 
and  that  fills  the  bill  perfectly." 

"Very  well ;  has  anyone  anything  to  add,  or  any  criticism 
to  make?"  One  hand  went  up.  "Well,  Charles,  what  have 
you  to  offer?" 

"I  think  Tasmania  should  have  been  mentioned;  I  agree 
with  the  conclusion,  however." 

"The  point  is  well  taken,"  said  the  teacher.  "Frank,  you 
may  tell  us  why  in  the  south  temperate  zone  we  should  see  the 
sun  moving  from  right  to  left,  instead  of  from  left  to  right." 

"If  I  lie  down  on  m.y  back  with  my  head  toward  the  south 
and  watch  the  course  of  the  sun  here,  it  will  be  from  right  to 
left.  The  direction  of  the  sun's  apparent  motion  in  this  respect 
depends  on  the  position  of  the  observer's  body  with  regard  to 
it.  But,  the  earth  being  a  sphere,  there  is  some  part  of  its 
surface  where  the  body  of  a  man  standing  erect  will  be  parallel 
to  any  possible  position. 

"To  find  the  point  where  my  body  when  standing  erect  will 
be  parallel  to  its  position  here  when  lying  flat  on  my  back  I 
must  go,  in  the  direction  my  head  points,  over  a  portion  of  the 
earth's  circumference  equal  to  the  angular  difference  between 
the  direction  of  my  head  from  my  feet  when  standing  erect  and 
when  lying  down,  which  in  this  case  is  one  quarter  of  the  way 
round  the  earth,  or  ninety  degrees  of  latitude  toward  the  south. 


134  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

Our  latitude  here  is  close  to  forty  degrees  north.  Take  ninety 
degrees  from  forty  degrees  of  north  latitude  and  its  leaves 
minus  fifty  degrees  of  north  latitude,  that  is  fifty  degrees  of 
south  latitude,  at  which  point  on  this  meridian  my  body  when 
standing  erect  would  be  parallel  with  its  position  here  when 
lying  down  on  a  horizontal  plane  with  my  head  toward  the 
south.  A  similar  calculation  will  give  a  similar  result  with 
corresponding  differences  of  latitude  from  any  point  where  the 
sun  is  ordinarily  seen  moving  from  left  to  right,  which  is  any 
point  in  the  north  temperate  zone,  from  which  it  follows  that 
from  any  point  in  the  south  temperate  zone  the  sun  will,  to  a 
person  standing  erect,  be  seen  moving  across  the  sky  from 
right  to  left  in  a  path  corresponding  to  that  in  which  from  the 
corresponding  latitude  in  the  northern  hemisphere  it  is  seen 
moving  from  left  to  right." 

"Very  good.  Has  anyone  any  other  explanation  to  ofifer, 
or  any  criticism  to  make?    If  so,  raise  the  hand." 

About  a  dozen  hands  went  up. 

"Mary  C. :    What  have  you  to  say  regarding  the  matter?" 

"We  have  always  been  taught,"  said  Mary,  "that  in  the 
southern  hemisphere  the  sun  is  seen  moving  across  the 
northern  instead  of  the  southern  sky,  and,  as  it  rises  in  the  east 
and  sets  in  the  west  in  the  northern  and  southern  hemispheres 
alike,  if  in  the  southern  hemisphere  it  moves  across  the  north- 
ern instead  of  the  southern  sky  it  must  move  from  right  to  left. 
If  it  moved  across  the  northern  sky  here,  it  would  move  from 
right  to  left.  I  think  that  is  a  simpler  explanation  than 
Frank's."  The  class  cheered  approval. 

"So  it  is,"  said  the  teacher,  "and  correct,  but  not  so  scien- 
tific as  Frank's  in  that  it  fails  to  set  forth  the  reason  why  things 
are  as  they  are.  Has  anyone  anything  else  to  add?  None. 
The  answers  given  are  entirelv  correct,  likewise  the  reasoning. 


Third  Period — ipiy-ip2i.  185 

But  I  am  subject  to  these  strange,  unconscious  journeyings, 
and  again  I  find  myself  in  a  strange  place. 

"This  time,  I  am  on  a  small  wooded  island,  apparently 
uninhabited.  Near  the  shore  grow  the  white  birch,  white 
poplar  and  hemlock  ;  close  to  the  beach  are  clusters  of  creeping 
juniper  growing  in  the  wind  driven  sand,  there  is  the  erect 
variety,  also,  a  little  back.  The  white  cedar  is  growing  in  every 
springy  or  swampy  place,  and  the  hemlock,  mingled  with  beech 
and  white  oak,  is  found  over  nearly  the  whole  island.  On  a 
sandy  flat  yonder  is  a  grove  of  Norway  pine.  Blackberry  briars 
and  raspberries  abound  on  the  higher  parts  of  the  island,  also 
gooseberry  bushes  and  black  currants  here  find  their  congenial 
haunts  under  nature's  planting.  The  blackberry  briars  are  in 
blossom,  and  the  tips  of  the  young  hemlock  branches  droop 
over  the  darker  fronds  in  pale  and  tender  green  tassels,  very 
beautiful  to  see.  The  sun  rides  high  in  the  sky,  passing  from 
left  to  right,  my  shadow  at  noon  being  not  much  longer  than 
my  stride  when  walking  vigorously.  Looking  out  over  the 
water,  there  is  no  other  land  to  be  seen,  except  in  one  direction 
where  a  blue  line  on  the  horizon  indicates  a  distant  shore.  The 
waves  roll  long  and  high,  like  the  ocean,  but  I  can  see  no  sea- 
weed nor  any  shells  on  the  shore.  There  is  much  driftwood, 
however,  and  some  of  it  bears  the  marks  of  ax  and  saw.  I 
taste  of  the  water,  and  find  it  fresh  and  good  to  drink.  Where 
am  I,  and  what  is  the  time  of  the  year?  William  and  Frank 
may  be  excused  from  answering." 

This  problem  proved  even  more  fruitful  than  the  other. 
The  answer  worked  out  was,  an  island  in  Lake  Superior,  the 
northern  part  of  Lake  Michigan  or  Lake  Huron ;  time,  the  last 
part  of  June  or  the  first  part  of  July. 

"This,"  said  Colonel  M.,  "will  fairly  illustrate  to  you  our 
manner  of  school  work.    We  lead  the  children  to  use  their  own 


136  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

%/ faculties,  to  observe  closely  and  reason  correctly,  to  form  their 
own  conclusions  from  their  own  data.  The  whole  course  in 
our  schools  is  in  direct  continuation  from  the  kindergarten 
work.  When  we  teach  a  child  to  read  we  do  not  tell  him  the 
names  of  the  letters,  but  teach  him  their  use  in  simple  words, 
having  previously  taught  him  to  notice  particularly  their  forms 
with  those  of  many  other  objects.  In  teaching  mathema.tics,  we 
dwell  especially  on  the  reasoning,  regarding  it  the  most  impor- 
tant use  of  a  mathematical  course  to  teach  a  pupil  in  what 
proof  consists  and  to  distinguish  the  difference  between  evi- 
dence and  assertion,  no  matter  how  ancient  the  assertion 
may  be. 

"In  liistory  we  teach  our  pupils  to  trace  events  and  condi- 
tions back  to  their  causes.  The  law  of  causation  and  the  evolu- 
tionary philosophy  we  keep  in  sight  in  all  things. 

"We  teach  no  language  but  our  own,  and,  while  our  pupils 
take  naturally  to  the  use  of  our  libraries  in  their  search  for 
information  regarding  the  thousands  of  topics  that  come  to 
their  attention,  the  use  of  text  books  is  no  part  of  our  school 
work.  Teachers  may  use  them,  but  it  is  the  teacher's  business 
to  lead  his  pupils  forward  in  knowledge  and  intelligence  from 
natiu-e  and  not  from  books." 

"By  the  way,  Colonel,"  I  remarked,  "I  haven't  seen  a 
horse  in  this  region,  nor  heard  his  name  mentioned,  except 
in  that  absurd  Captain  Jinks  song.  Do  these  children  really 
know  what  a  horse  is?" 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  the  Colonel,  "horseback  exercises  are  a 
special  line  of  training  in  our  schools.  The  rocky  height  yon- 
der, that  occupies  the  middle  of  Educational  park,  is  threaded 
in  all  directions  with  bridle  paths,  while  the  more  level  ground 
at  its  foot  on  either  side  is  especially  prepared  for  equestrian 
evolutions.     The  equestrian  classes,  which  include  both  boys 


Third  Period — ipi/-ip2i.  137 

and  girls,  are  exercised  in  all  manner  of  riding  feats,  including 
hasty  scrambles  over  the  height  and  reforming  for  evolutions 
on  the  other  side.  The  horse  with  us  is  a  means  of  physical 
training,  and  also  a  sort  of  avant-courier  of  civilization.  When 
in  city  or  field,  on  mountain  or  plain,  we  have  got  our  machin- 
ery in  order,  we  have  no  further  use  for  the  horse,  but  until 
then  he  comes  in  handy.  Besides,  we  have  always  need  for 
couriers  in  the  mountains,  for  whose  use  the  horse  is  indis- 
pensable. We  will,  if  you  please,  see  the  equestrian  class  exer- 
cise tomorrow  morning  between  8  and  9  a.  m." 

This  we  did,  and  I  may  say  that  for  action  and  life  no  wild 
west  show  nor  circus  could  coijipare  with  the  evolutions  and 
feats  of  the  1,200  young  riders  which,  the  next  morning,  I 
witnessed  from  the  top  of  a  rocky  pinnacle  on  the  height  which 
Colonel  M.  pointed  out  to  me. 

The  riding  classes,  I  learned,  were  in  four  grades,  exer- 
cising one  hour  each,  from  8  to  9  and  from  10  to  11  a.  m.,  and  V» 
from  1  to  2  and  from  3  to  4  p.  m.,  the  beginners  taking  the  last 
hour  and  passing  to  the  next  earlier  as  they  advance  in  pro- 
ficiency, the  same  horses  serving  for  all  with  an  hour's  rest 
after  each  hour  of  exercise,  and  beginning  fresh  in  the  morning 
for  the  most  advanced  grade  of  riders. 


138  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

y  Fort  Goodwill,  even  at  this  early  epoch,  was  the  cleanest 
city  on  earth.  Its  streets  were  paved  as  fast  as  the  residences 
bordering  them  were  completed.  The  body  of  the  pavement 
used  was  a  thick  bed  of  macadam,  or  crushed  stone,  rolled  into 
compactness  with  heavy  rollers  and  covered,  on  some  streets, 
with  asphaltum,  from  the  great  deposits  of  that  material  which 
for  many  years  before  the  period  of  this  history  were  known  to 
exist  in  eastern  Utah ;  on  other  streets  the  pavement  was 
covered  with  cement;  in  either  case  a  hard,  smooth,  dustless 
surface  was  produced,  which  under  the  rubber  tires  of  the  auto- 
mobiles and  bicycles  remained  for  years  as  perfect  as  when  first 
laid.  Along  the  borders  of  these  streets  and  about  the  houses 
were  well  kept  lawns  and  rapidly  growing  young  shade  trees 
in  pleasing  variety,  while  in  the  squares  along  the  diagonals 
of  the  blocks  the  lawns  and  walks  were  beautified  with  shrub- 
bery which  had  already  attained  such  a  development  that  in  its 
varieties  there  were  bloom  and  foliage  to  brighten  every  season. 
^  These  border  lawns  and  trees  were  kept  under  the  care  of 
the  department  of  forestry,  and  the  same  men  that  cared  for 
them  swept  the  streets  and  removed  all  fallen  leaves  or  other 
litter,  a  light  task,  since  horses  were  never  admitted  into  the 
city  excepting  on  one  street  only.  This  one  street  along  which 
horses  passed  daily  was  named  Equestrian  avenue.  It  extends 
from  the  stables  to  the  equestrian  campus  in  Education  park 
parallel  to  \^^estern  avenue,  but  a  mile  to  the  north  of  that 
dividing  line,  and  this  avenue  was  swept  twice  daily  and  thor- 
oughly washed  once  a  week. 


Life  in  Fort  Goodwill.  I39 

In  the  former  epoch  of  horse  traffic  it  was  not  realized  how 
great  a  deliverance  awaited  the  world  when  the  horse  in  every 
day  life  should  be  dispensed  with.    The  labor  required  to  sup- 
port and  care  for  a  horse  was  always  greater  than  that  required 
to  support  a  man,  and  in  addition  to  this  labor  there  was  the 
plague  of  flies  and  dust  and  dirt    and    odor    forever  hanging 
round  the  haunts  of  the  horse.    In  dispensing  with  horse  traffic 
and  traction,  at  least  one-third  of  the  sum  total  of  labor  neces-'' 
sary  to  maintain  civilized  life  was  dispensed  with.     And  yet, 
though  this  is  the  horseless  epoch  so  long  predicted,  the  time  is 
not  in  sight  when  the  horse  will  be  as  rare  as  the  elephant  or 
the  girafiFe.    ' 

There  is  very  little  traffic  on  the  streets  of  Fort  Goodwill, 
the  mail  carriers  in  making  their  morning  and  afternoon  de- 
liveries use  light  automobiles,  and  they  deliver  any  moderate-  ^ 
sized  parcels  which  may  be  sent  from  the  stores,  with  the  mail. 
Gas  being  the  only  fuel  used  in  the  city,  not  only  is  the  atmos- 
phere clear  of  smoke,  but  there  is  no  coal  to  convey  nor  ashes 
to  remove.  Since  all  food  is  received  and  prepared,  and  nearly 
all  of  it  eaten,  at  the  public  kitchens  and  dining  rooms  in  the 
corner  buildings,  the  city  is  as  clear  of  garbage  as  it  is  of  ashes 
and  smoke.    All  scraps  and  waste  portions  of  food  are  collected 

at  these  great  dining  halls  and  conveyed  to  the  poultry  and  live 

stock  department  by  a  systematized  service. 

In  these  kitchens  the  food  is  cooked  with  economy  and 

skill  in  every  style  that  fancy  may  call  for;  it  is  carried  to  the 

tables  by  autonjatic^wah^ers  similar  to  some  of  the  cash  carrying 

arrangements  in  use  in  large  stores  during  the  former  epoch. 
In  the  dining  rooms,  which  are  adorned  with  works  of  art 

and  palms  and  flowers,  sojMmusk  plays  while  the  people  are 

served. 


140  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

If,  owing  to  the  presence  of  young  children  or  for  any 
other  cause,  any  family  prefers  seclusion,  an  alcove  is  set  apart 
for  them  and  sequestered  with  Japanese  screens,  ^hen,  how- 
ever, any  prefer  to  take  their  meals  at  their  own  homes,  they 
have  but  to  announce  that  fact  and  give  their  order  by  tele- 
phone, which,  of  course,  no  house  is  without,  and  at  the  time 
appointed  the  desired  food  is  delivered  to  them  from  auto- 
mobile cars  prepared  for  that  purpose  with  hot  and  cold  cham- 
bers, and  later  another  automobile  calls  and  removes  the 
dishes  and  remnants  of  the  meal^ 

In  addition  to  the  public  dining  rooms  in  the  buildings  on 
the  corners  of  the  blocks,  there  is  another  system  of  restaurants 
connected  with  the  workshops  in  the  industrial  district,  in 
which  each  workman  serving  his  eight-hour  shift  takes  one 
meal,  and  consequently  in  all  industries  that  operate  con- 
tinuously through  the  twenty-four  hours  three  meals  per  day 
are  served  in  these  restaurants  as  in  the  general  dining  rooms. 

Visiting  one  of  these  workshop  restaurants  connected  with 
the  department  of  machinery,  in  which  4,000  men  eat  at  the 
same  time,  we  see  a  great  building  800  feet  long  with  arched 
roof  of  glass.  On  the  side  opposite  the  workshops  this  build- 
ing is  flanked  by  the  kitchens,  and  on  that  nearest  them  by  the 
lavatories  through  which  the  men  enter  to  take  their  seats  at 
the  tables.  In  the  daytime,  when  the  light  shining  on  the 
arched  glass  ceiling  would  be  too  intense,  it  is  toned  down  to 
pleasantness  by  daintily  colored  screens  and  curtains,  at  night 
the  hall  is  brilliantly  lighted  by  electricity.  Along  the  center 
of  this  hall  is  a  long  row  of  palm  trees,  and  in  the  window  bays 
at  the  sides  roses  and  tropical  plants  embower  it  in  beauty  and 
verdure.  Along  either  side  of  the  center  aisle,  with  its  row  of 
palms,  is  a  double  row  of  tables,  and  over  the  aisles  between  the 
rows  of  tables,  is  the  system  of  mechanical  waiters  communicat- 


Life  in  Fort  Goodzvill.  141 

ing  with  the  kitchens,  which  carries  all  food  and  returns  dishes, 
reducinf^  the  labor  of  the  waiters  to  a  minimum. 

Ten  minutes  before  a  meal  is  served  a  signal  sounds  in  the 
workshops  by  an  electric  button,  touched  by  the  superintendent 
of  cuisine  in  the  kitchen,  which  signals  the  machinery  to  stop 
and  calls  all  hands  to  the  lavatories.  Here  the  men  wash  and 
remove  their  overalls.  From  the  lavatories  they  march  into  the 
dining  hall,  where  on  a  balcony  over  the  entrances,  embowered 
in  tropical  foliage  and  brilliant  with  flowers,  a  band  of  music  is 
playing  a  lively  air  with  strongly  marked  time  to  which  the  men 
instinctively  keep  step  as  they  march  to  the  tables.  Here  they 
seat  themselves  in  groups  of  ten  at  a  table.  Four  hundred  such 
tables,  arranged  in  four  lines  of  one  hundred  tables  in  a  line, 
fill  the  hall,  providing  seats  for  four  thousand  workmen.  Here 
they  are  served  with  a  meal  as  substantial  as  hunger  could 
desire  and  as  daintily  cooked  as  the  most  fastidious  appetite 
could  wish. 

Forty  minutes  are  allowed  for  the  meal,  while  soft  music 
by  the  band  on  the  balcony  permeates  the  hall,  but  does  not 
interrupt  conversation  in  the  least.  Then  another  signal 
sounds,  the  band  again  strikes  up  a  march  and  the  men  return 
to  the  lavatories,  where  they  resume  their  working  garb,  and  at 
the  end  of  ten  minutes  they  are  again  at  their  places  among  the 
buzzing  machinery. 

Everybody  in  Fort  Goodwill  uses  the  bicj^le.  Bicycle 
paths,  the  easiest  and  cheapest  of  all  roads  to  make,  have  been 
constructed  far  into  the  country  in  all  directions ;  into  the  wild- 
est glens,  up  the  sloping  sides  of  the  mountains,  along  the 
banks  of  the  canals,  by  the  margins  of  the  canyons,  there  is 
nothing  of  wildness  or  grandeur  or  magnificence  that  is  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  bicycle.  Bicycle  excursions  and  picnic  parties 
go  out  frequently  to  lunch  at  interesting  places  ten,  twenty. 


<^' 


142  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

or  even  thirty  miles  distant,  and  the  independent  wheelman, 
alone  or  by  twos  and  threes,  finds  any  point  within  ten  or 
twelve  miles  easily  accessible  after  his  daily  eight  hours  of  ser- 
vice have  been  rendered.  Certainly  the  invention  of  the  bicycle 
trebled  the  sum  of  human  freedom.  On  bicycles,  in  all  reason- 
able weather,  the  children  go  to  school,  and  the  older  people 
many  of  them  to  their  meals  or  to  their  work,  to  entertainments 
or  to  lectures,  though  for  these  purposes  automobile  cars  wait 
on  them  in  sufficient  numbers  to  carry  all  whose  inclinations 
lead  them  to  prefer  that  mode  of  transit  rather  than  the  activity 
which  the  bicycle  implies. 

Fort  Goodwill  is  mostly  a  city  of  small  houses,  but  with 
the  mode  of  life  prevailing  here,  with  no  food  to  cook  in  the 
houses  and  no  kitchens,  with  all  laundry  work  done  in  the 
public  service,  with  no  ashes  and  no  smoke,  the  labor  of  house- 
keeping is  almost  nothing.  Each  house  has  hot  water  as  well 
as  cold,  this  being  supplied  by  a  single  gas  burner  running 
in  proper  adjustment  to  a  water  tank,  which  is  found  amply 
sufficient  to  supply  a  hot  water  service  always  ready  for  any 
purpose  in  every  private  house.  Fireplaces,  arranged  with 
numerous  jets  of  gas  mingled  with  air  in  such  proportions  as  to 
give  the  almost  invisible  blue  flame,  heat  every  house  in  any 
weather  as  warm  as  may  be  desired.  These  thin  blue  flames 
shooting  among  plates  and  fringes  of  fire  clay  and  asbestos, 
heat  them  white  hot  and  so  give  a  brilliant  fire  as  well  as  a  clean 
one,  and  one  that  is  perfectly  under  control,  as  it  can  be  turned 
high  or  turned  low  at  pleasure  by  the  touch  of  a  button,  while 
a  flue  above  each  such  fire  furnishes  the  most  perfect  and  satis- 
factory mode  of  ventilation  that  has  yet  been  discovered. 

These  open  hearth  fires !  Since  the  days  when  the  pioneer 
rolled  the  huge  backlog  into  the  great  mud-walled  fireplace, 
and  sent  the  flame  and  smoke  of  his  cordwood  fire  rolling  up 


Life  in  Fort  Goodwill.  143 

his  great  chimney  of  mud  and  sticks,  to  this  last  refinement  of 
fire  without  smoke  or  ashes,  people  have  never  ceased  to  take 
pleasure  in  them,  and  poets  have  never  ceased  to  sing  their 
praises.  While  hot  air  furnaces,  and  steam  radiators,  and  air- 
tight stoves  have  poured  forth  their  heat  without  light,  often 
the  memories  of  the  aged  have  turned  back  with  love  and  long- 
ing to  the  open  hearth  fire  and  mourned  its  loss  as  they  would 
mourn  a  friend  departed ;  now  it  has  returned  with  all  its  old- 
time  comfort  and  cheer,  but  minus  all  its  old-time  smoke,  ashes 
and  dirt. 

^This  gas  fuel  is  most  economical,  too.  The  gasworks  are 
down  in  the  industrial  district,  where  there  is  use  for  all  the 
coke  produced  in  manufacturing  this  gas,  and  where  all  the 
spare  heat  generated  about  the  gas  retorts  is  utilized  also. 

By  adopting  this  mode  of  heating  the  great  city  with  all 
its  great  industries  is  made,  to  the  eye,  as  srjipi^ess  as  a 
meadow,  and  the  dews  of  summer  fall  as  swe^  in  the  gardens, 
and  the  flowers  bloom  as  fresh  and  bright  as  in  the  fairest 
islands  of  the  sea. 

But  we  have  been  considering  the  small  individual  houses 
only.  These  form  the  greater  part  of  the  city,  but  not  the 
whole.  For  families  with  children  single  houses  are  a  necessity, 
but  for  childless  people,  of  whom  there  are  always  many,  and 
of  which  class  the  parents  of  many  children  often  come  to  be 
when  the  children  are  grown,  an  isolated  house  is  both  lone- 
some and  wasteful.  /?here  was  need  in  Fort  Goodwill  to  provide 
homes  for  pensioners  from  the  army  retired  at  the  age  limit,  or 
disabled  by  accident  or  disease,  who  were  without  relatives  to 
people  a  house  with  them.  For  these,  blocks  of  apartments 
with  the  conveniences  of  the  best  equipped  hotels,  were  the 
most  desirable  residences,  and  for  their  use  many  such  build- 
ings were  constructed,  afTording  by  their  size  opportunities  for 


144  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

the  display  of  many  features  of  architectural  beauty  which  the 
smaller  houses  did  not  permit,  and  relieving  the  city  from  the 
sameness  to  which  the  great  multiplication  of  small  houses 
might  have  tended. 

To  people  visiting  Fort  Goodwill  from  the  commercial 
cities  of  the  competitive  world,  its  greatest  peculiarity  was  the 
absence  of  the  businessjliatrict.  The  great  blocks  of  stores  and 
ofifices,  which  constituted  the  heart  of  every  old-time  city,  were 
without  any  counterpart  or  likeness  here,  and  their  absence 
made  the  city  seem  to  the  old-time  business  man  like  a  fine 
residence  district  with  the  city  left  out  altogether,  and  so  it  was 
as  the  nineteenth  century  understood  a  city,  but  the  people  who 
lived  here  were  happy  and  free.  The  many  occasions  that 
brought  the  people  together  here  in  large  numbers  extended 
the  circle  of  every  one's  acquaintance  very  greatly  beyond  the 
possibilities  of  former  conditions,  and,  notwithstanding  the 
eight  hours  of  service  per  day  required  of  every  man,  and  the 
four  hours  required  of  every  woman,  there  was  never  before  a 
city  whose  people  had  so  much  of  leigiire  as  the  people  of  Fort 
Goodwill  had,  and  among  them  all  there  was  not  one  who  was 
pooj?;  not  one  in  want  nor  in  danger  nor  fear  of  want. 

There  were  among  the  population  of  F^rt  Goodwill  several 
millionaires,  who  for  the  sake  of  the  peace  and  security  and  the 
social  and  intellectual  life  which  it  offered,  had  accepted  the 
conditions  required  of  the  citizen  tenantry  and  become  residents 
of  the  city.  They  had  turned  their  property  into  gold,  and 
United  States  and  municipal  bonds,  and  other  securities  such 
as  would  require  no  attention  from  them,  and  they  imagined 
that  their  holdings  would  give  them  some  kind  of  social  emi- 
nence or  distinction  here.  But  in  this  they  were  disappointed, 
without  poverty  they  discovered  that  riches  were  without 
power,  the  wealth,  to  accumulate  which  they  had  regarded  as 
the  chief  object  of  life,  had  become  as  worthless  as  the  dead 


Life  in  Fort  Goodwill.  145 

the  chief  object  of  Hfe,  had  become  as  worthless  as  the  dead 
leaves  of  autumn.  None  were  in  need  of  anything  which  they 
could  supply,  none  would  serve  them  for  hire,  and  they  were 
no  richer  than  their  neighbors.  They  had  become  citizens  of 
Fort  Goodwill,  but  they  found  that  Fort  Goodwill  was  like  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  in  that  it  was  easier  for  a  camel  to  pass 
through  the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into 
that  citizenship.  The  man  could  enter,  but  when  he  had  done 
so,  though  nothing  had  been  taken  from  him,  he  was  no  longer 
rich,  his  gold  and  his  bonds  were  but  the  pieces  in  a  game 
not  played  here,  a  game  which,  by  the  contrast  existing  be- 
tween conditions  here  and  former  conditions  where  it  was 
played,  he  could  not  fail  to  perceive  was  most  cruel  and  mur- 
derously destructive  to  mankind. 

Very  soon  the  millionaires  of  Fort  Goodwill  discovered 
that  their  wealth  here  had  lost  its  power,  it  did  not  take  them 
long  to  perceive  that  its  former  power  was  but  the  power  to  op- 
press, and  they  grew  ashamed  of  the  part  they  had  played 
with  it. 

But  though  the  wealth  which  these  millionaires  held  was 
powerless  here,  it  yet  held  power  in  the  world  at  large,  and', 
having  thoroughly  learned  the  lesson  which  Fort  Goodwill  best 
could  teach  to  them  and  their  class,  they  conferred  with  each 
other,  and  uniting  their  means  for  that  purpose  they  announced 
to  the  managers  of  the  industries  in  which  they  served,  their  in- 
tention to  return  to  the  competitive  world  and  use  the  wealth 
which  they  held  to  hasten  the  overthrow  of  the  competitive 
system,  by  establishing  co-operative  communities  near  the  cen- 
ters of  population  whose  industries  and  their  remuneration 
should  be  conducted  on  the  Fort  Goodwill  plan.  This  the}'  did, 
and  though  other  and  greater  factors  were  working  to  the  same 
end,  which  would  have  been  accomplished  even  without  their 
aid,  the  institutions  which  they  planted  proved  a  notable  factor 
in  wiping  commercialism  and  the  profit  system  ofif  the  earth. 


146  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

The  Board  of  Forestry  is  a  branch  of  the  service  to  which 
ailusion  has  several  times  been  incidentally  made,  but  whose 
operations  have  not  hitherto  been  particularly  noticed. 

This  year,  1917,  the  nurseries  in  the  Green  River  canyon 
contained  millions  on  millions  of  thrifty  young  trees  now  in  the 
third  year  of  their  growth,  which  though  not  yet  so  strong  and 
hardy  for  transplanting  as  they  would  be  one  or  two  years  later, 
were  nevertheless  fit  for  planting  in  favorable  locations,  and 
which  with  suitable  care  in  such  locations  would  grow  to 
maturity  even  more  quickly  than  if  allowed  to  develop  further 
in  the  nurseries. 

Accordingly,  this  year  the  force  under  the  charge  of  the 
Board  of  P'orestry  was  quadrupled  and  a  large  area  was  planted 
to  forest  trees,  while  a  vastly  greater  area  was  prepared  for  such 
planting  in  the  following  spring. 

Like  creatures  of  a  higher  order,  trees,  in  order  that  they 
may  live  and  thrive,  require  a  range  of  temperature  within 
suitable  limits,  water  at  such  times  that  they  can  adapt  their 
active  functions  to  its  presence,  food,  of  which  the  earth  nearly 
everywhere  stands  ready  to  furnish  abundance,  and  alternating 
periods  of  activity  and  sleep. 

This  last  mentioned  requirement  of  trees,  though  it  applies 
to  nearly  if  not  quite  all  plant  life,  is  very  often  overlooked.  In 
the  forest  regions  of  the  temperate  zones,  which,  especially  in 
their  polar  halves,  are  the  greatest  wood  producing  regions  of 
the  earth,  the  rains  of  spring  and  summer  coincidentally  with 
the  increasing  warmth  of  the  season,  furnish  abundant  water  to 
supply  the  needs  of  the  awakening  activities  of  the  trees,  and 
continue  the  supply  through  a  season  of  warmth  sufficiently 


operations  of  the  Board  of  Forestry.  147 

long  to  mature  the  growth  of  the  season  preparatory  to  their 
annual  sleep  through  the  following  winter.  In  the  semi-arid 
regions  of  northern  Mexico,  where  the  winters  are  not  cold 
enough  to  arrest  the  activities  of  tree  life,  where  the  months  of 
April,  May  and  June  are  usually  without  rain,  and,  June  es- 
pecialh",  burning  under  a  nearly  vertical  sun,  the  deciduous 
trees,  which  here  assume  a  low  and  scrubby  habit  of  growth, 
turn  brown  and  shed  their  leaves  in  May.  Through  that  month 
and  June  and  July,  with  their  branches  as  bare  of  foliage  as  the 
forests  of  the  north  are  in  the  heart  of  winter,  the  trees  take 
their  yearly  sleep.  The  rains  come  on  in  July,  continuing  into 
September,  and  saturate  the  earth.  Then  the  trees  awaken  and 
again  put  on  their  robes  of  green,  the  last  part  of  July  and 
August  is  their  spring, our  autunm  is  their  summer,and,  favored 
by  the  coolness  of  the  season  and  occasional  showers,  though 
these  are  not  essential,  the  oaks  on  the  mountains,  the  syca- 
mores in  the  ravines,  and  the  mesquites  on  the  plains  retain 
their  foliage  in  its  lively  green  and  mature  their  growth  through 
the  winter.  April  is  their  autumn,  and  with  the  increasing  dry- 
ness of  May  they  again  go  into  their  annual  sleep.  The  con- 
dition necessary  to  their  life  is  that  water  and  the  temperature 
suited  to  their  growth  should  come  to  them  at  the  same  time, 
which  here  they  do  during  our  northern  fall  and  winter,  the 
trees  adapt  themselves  to  this  condition,  whether  during  their 
period  of  sleep  the  cold  of  winter  or  the  heat  of  summer  pre- 
vails matters  not,  they  can  accommodate  their  habits  to  either. 
Here  in  Utah,  however,  while  water  enough  falls  during 
the  year  to  support  forest  life,  it  falls  mostly  during  the  winter, 
while  the  cold  makes  it  impossible  for  buds  and  leaves  to  push 
forth,  the  drought  of  spring  and  summer  prevents  their  devel- 
opment then,  and  the  result  is  that,  except  in  specially  favored 
localities,  this  is  a  treeless  countrv.     For  like  causes  the  same 


148  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

is  true  of  the  plateaus  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona.  The  tree- 
less condition  of  the  greater  part  of  Southern  California  is  due 
more  to  the  greater  aridity  of  the  region  and  less  to  the  rigors 
of  winter. 

Here  in  Utah  all  that  was  necessary  in  order  to  permit  the 
earth  to  be  clothed  with  forests  was  that  the  water,  which  in  the 
winter  falls  on  these  mountains  and  plateaus  in  the  form  of  rain 
and  snow,  and  which  melting  in  the  spring  immediately  ran 
away  into  the  canyons,  should  be  retained  and  applied  to  the 
earth  in  the  spring  and  early  summer.  Then  the  trees  to  be 
planted  would  put  forth  their  season's  growth,  maturing  it  as 
the  permissible  dryness  of  the  autumn  increased,  and  be  ready 
for  a  vigorous  new  growth  the  following  season. 

Accordingly  the  ten  thousand  men,  who  during  the  pre- 
ceding season  had  been  employed  in  constructing  reservoirs  at 
the  heads  of  valleys  in  the  mountains  and  uplands  above  the 
level  of  the  irrigating  canals,  were  this  season  reinforced  by 
thirty  thousand  others  employed  in  the  same  work.  In  prepar- 
ing the  ground  on  which  to  utilize  the  waters  retained  in  these 
reservoirs,  of  course  no  power  system  was  needed,  the  old  open 
ditch  and  trench  method  of  irrigation  was  followed,  and 
trenches  once  dug  along  the  face  of  a  slope,  retaining  water  to 
percolate  down  to  the  next  trench  below,  could  be  left  as  a 
permanent  improvement,  unfilled  except  as  nature  might  fill 
them.  This  mode  of  irrigation  was  aided  by  pipes  to  cross 
ravines  and  surmount  heights  wherever  their  use  was  desirable. 
On  ground  prepared  in  this  manner  trees  were  planted,  as 
nearly  as  convenient,  at  distances  of  ten  feet  apart  each  way. 
Regularity  not  being  necessary,  some  variation  was  permitted 
in  order  to  take  advantage  of  the  most  favorable  places  in  rocky 
ground.  This  placed  the  young  trees  near  enough  together  to 
protect  each  other  in  some  degree  from  the  storms  of  winter 


operations  of  the  Board  of  Forestry.  149 

while  they  were  young  and  small,  while  at  the  same  time  they 
were  far  enough  apart  to  permit  them  to  grow  to  a'  useful  size 
before  it  would  be  necessary  to  thin  them  or  they  would  begin 
to  crowd  each  other  out. 

The  area  planted  during  the  first  season  in  each  valley  was 
limited  to  what  could  be  watered  abundantly,  and  with  suffi- 
cient frequency  to  insure  the  vigorous  growth  of  the  young 
trees  through  the  season.  When  the  leaves  had  fallen  they 
were  retained  on  the  ground  in  greater  and  greater  proportion 
each  year  as  the  growth  of  the  trees  increased.  From  the  first 
they  filled  the  irrigating  trenches  and  covered  the  ground  in  the 
hollows  and  sheltered  places  even  on  wind  swept  slopes,  where 
like  a  sponge  they  served  to  retain  much  of  the  water  falling  on 
the  spot  durmg  each  succeeding  winter  and  spring  until  it 
could  percolate  into  the  earth.  The  roots  of  the  young  trees 
at  the  same  time  spread  wide  and  deep,  and  after  the  first  year 
it  w"s  found  that  fewer  irrigations  were  needed  to  maintain  the 
trees  in  healthy  vigor. 

Thus  it  was  found  practicable  year  after  year  to  enlarge  the 
area  of  timber  watered  from  each  such  retaining  reservoir,  until 
all  the  upland  valleys  and  mountain  slopes  were  covered  with 
forests. 

The  greater  part  of  the  ground  planted  to  timber  during 
this  season  of  1917,  however,  was  in  the  triangles  formed  at  the 
ends  of  the  half-mile  wide  fields  where,  owing  to  the  diagonal 
course  of  the  canal  or  canyon  or  other  obstacle  limiting  the 
length  of  the  field,  one  border  reached  beyond  the  other,  and 
an  area  remained  where,  owing  to  the  lack  of  one  of  the  oppos- 
ing power  shafts,  the  machinery  for  plowing  and  sowing  and 
gathering  the  harvests  could  not  be  applied.  This  difficulty 
could  have  been  obviated  by  using  short  auxiliary  lines  of 
power  shafts,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  beauty  which  the  forests  , 


150  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

would  give  to  the  landscape,  and  also  for  the  protection  of  the 
fields  which  they  would  afford  from  the  winds  of  winter  it  was 
preferred  to  devote  these  triangles  and  canyon  borders  to  tim- 
ber. Here,  of  course,  the  irrigating  mains  supplying  the  fields 
were  available  to  furnish  all  the  water  needed,  and  on  this  favor- 
able ground  more  attention  was  "given  to  the  landscape  gar- 
dener's art,  in  the  selection  of  trees,  than  in  the  upland  districts 
remote  from  the  centers  of  population,  where  the  adaptation  of 
the  trees  chosen  to  the  location  in  which  they  were  planted  was 
the  only  consideration  that  needed  to  be  regarded.  The  force 
employed  in  planting  the  trees  on  these  triangles  was  thirty 
thousand  men,  not  included  in  the  force  previously  specified. 
The  total  force  employed  under  the  direction  of  the  Board  of 
Forestry  was  increased  from  year  to  year  until  the  entire  tree- 
less region  was  clothed  with  forests.  This  was  deemed  of  special 
importance  because  it  was  confiitently  believed  that  with  the 
spread  of  the  forests  the  rainfall  throughout  the  arid  region 
would  be  greatly  increased.  It  has  increased  to  the  satisfac'^ion 
of  every  reasonable  desire,  and  in  causing  that  increase  ti'^e 
work  of  the  department  of  forestry  has  been  a  large  factor,  bui 
by  no  means  the  only  one. 


Lake  Diaz.  151 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

It  was  during  this  season  of  1917  that  work  was  begun 
also  for  flooding  the  depressed  area  in  Southern  California 
lying  to  the  eastward  of  the  southern  portion  of  the  San  Jacinto 
mountains,  and  extending  up  the  valley  between  that  group 
and  the  San  Bernardino  range. 

This  depression  forms  a  geological  continuation  of  the 
Gulf  of  California.  It  owes  its  origin  as  a  dry  valley  to  the 
Colorado  river,  which  during  geologically  recent  times  has 
carried  down  in  its  current  the  immense  volume  of  material  that 
formerly  filled  the  grand  canyon  as  well  as  all  tributary  canyons 
and  valleys  of  erosion  that,  draining  into  the  Colorado,  were 
carved  out  as  the  country  through  which  it  flows  was  slowly 
uplifted.  This  material  borne  down  the  channel  of  the  river 
and  poured  into  the  gulf  in  the  form  of  mud,  sand  and  gravel, 
completely  filled  it  opposite  the  river's  mouth,  and  for  some 
distance  in  each  direction,  excepting  that  the  river  maintained 
for  itself  a  channel  to  the  gulf  along  the  eastern  border  of  its 
delta. 

The  sand  and  gravel  which  the  river  continued  to  carry 
into  the  gulf  were  thrown  up  by  the  waves  and  piled  up  in 
dunes  by  the  wind  on  the  made  lands  previously  formed,  until 
in  many  places  these  dunes  reached  a  height  of  two  or  three 
hundred  feet,  but,  like  dunes  everywhere,  alternating  with  de- 
pressions reaching  down  to  the  water  level,  or  even  enclosing 
hollows  filled  with  water  below  that  level,  which  would  after- 
ward be  mostly  filled  with  sand  blown  by  the  wind. 

As  this  tract  of  made  land  grew  opposite  the  mouth  of  the 
Colorado  river,  the  waters  of  the  upper  part  of  the  gulf  were 


152  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

shut  off  from  the  sea.  Thus  enclosed,  under  a  tropical  sun,  in 
a  rainless  region,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  waters  enclosed 
should  in  a  very  few  years  dry  out,  as  they  did,  leaving  a  desert, 
hot,  dry  and  inhospitable  to  the  last  degree,  in  a  depressed 
valley  which  in  its  deepest  part  reaches  a  depth  of  300  feet 
below  the  level  of  the  sea. 

To  refill  this  depression  it  was  necessary  to  excavate  a 
channel,  the  greater  part  of  which  lay  through  Mexican  terri- 
tory. Accordingly,  the  consent  of  the  Mexican  Government 
was  sought  permitting  the  forces  under  the  command  of 
General  Goodwill  to  excavate  such  a  channel  and  providing 
for  its  maintenance  afterwards  by  the  joint  action  of  the  govern- 
ments of  Mexico  and  the  United  States.  This  consent  was 
very  cordially  given.  As  a  matter  of  courtesy  in  acknowledg- 
ment of  this  concession,  the  privilege  was  offered  to  the  Mexi- 
can Government  to  name  the  body  of  water  to  be  formed.  This 
privilege  the  Mexicans  accepted  and  named  it  in  honor  of  their 
greatest  president,  Lake  Diaz. 

These  preliminaries  having  been  arranged  and  the  line  sur- 
veyed along  which  the  canal  was  to  be  excavated,  in  the  spring 
of  1917  a  dozen  powerful  dredges  were  sent  round  into  the  Gulf 
of  California  to  proceed  to  the  site  fixed  for  the  mouth  of  the 
proposed  channel  and  begin  the  excavation.  There  was  no 
such  hurry  to  complete  this  enterprise  as  to  make  land  excava- 
tions necessary  along  the  line  of  the  channel,  and  the  twelve 
dredges  were  ranged  side  by  side,  each  cutting  fifty  feet  wide 
and  twenty-five  feet  deep  below  the  water  level,  while  the  mud- 
scows  and  tugs  attending  them  carried  the  material  which  the 
dredges  removed  away  into  the  deep  waters  of  the  gulf.  Thus 
they  cut  a  channel  600  feet  wide  and  twenty-five  feet  deep  as 
they  advanced.     Four  other  dredges  soon  followed  them  to 


Lake  Diaz.  153 

remove  the  earth  which  shcl  down  the  banks  and  keep  in  order 
the  channel  which  the  others  had  made. 

These  dredges  worked  night  and  day,  making  progress 
fast  or  slow,  according  to  whether  the  land  through  which  they 
were  cutting  lay  low  or  consisted  of  dunes  piled  high.  A  land 
camp  was  established  alongside  of  the  work  as  the  dredges  ad- 
vanced, which  was  connected  by  rail  with  San  Bernardino  and 
New  Utopia.  This  brought  to  the  work  prompt  supplies  of 
whatever  was  needed  for  its  unremitting  prosecution,  and  on 
the  sixth  day  of  May,  1918,  thirteen  months  and  ten  days  after 
the  dredging  was  begim,  water  began  to  flow  back  inland  from 
the  gulf.  The  volume  of  this  stream  rapidly  increased,  spread- 
ing widely  over  the  sand  as  it  flowed ;  l)ut  two  or  three  days 
more  of  dredging  caused  the  current  to  flow  with  such  volume 
that  it  scoured  for  itself  a  deep  channel  and  it  became  necessary 
for  the  dredges  to  drop  anchors  to  prevent  their  being  carried 
away  with  it.  This  channel  became  so  deep  and  broad  that 
within  five  days  more  the  depression  was  filled  and  the  flow  of 
water  ceased. 

The  point  in  the  Colorado  river  where  this  dredged  chan- 
nel begins  is  near  its  entrance  to  the  gulf,  and  when  the  river 
is  low  the  water  there  is  brackish,  a  mixture  of  river  and  sea 
water;  at  the  time  when  Lake  Diaz  was  filled,  however,  the 
spring  flood  was  pouring  down  the  Colorado  and  the  fresh 
water  of  the  river  displaced  the  sea  water  to  a  considerable 
distance  out  into  the  gulf.  So  great,  however,  was  the  current 
setting  back  into  the  depressed  area  that  the  river,  though  at  its 
flood,  was  reversed,  and  a  large  volume  of  sea  water  was  drawn 
in  with  it,  so  much  so  that  the  contents  of  the  new  lake  from 
the  beginning  were  sufficiently  salt  to  be  suited  to  the  propaga- 
tion of  oysters  and  salt  water  fish.  Since  this  channel  was  com- 
pleted the  current  of  the  river,  diminished  though  it  is  by  the 


154  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

diversion  of  its  waters  for  irrigating  purposes,  is  yet  sufficient 
to  dilute  the  current  setting  into  the  new  lake  and  prevent  its 
becoming  a  huge  solar  salt  pan. 

Of  course  the  sand  creeping  into  the  new  channel  along 
its  sides,  and  the  bar  continually  building  across  its  mouth, 
have  made  it  necessary  to  keep  dredges  continually  at  work  in 
order  to  keep  the  channel  open  to  the  desired  depth,  especially 
so  since  the  purpose  was  to  make  the  channel  a  broad  one  that 
would  ultimately  maintain  itself. 

During  the  twenty-nine  years  that  have  elapsed  since  the 
water  was  admitted  to  Lake  Diaz,  that  channel  has  spread  into 
a  strait  half  a  mile  wide.  The  sand  yet  creeps  down  its  gently 
shelving  bottom  from  the  shores,  but  slowly  now,  and  it  is  not 
necessary  to  employ  more  than  three  dredges  to  keep  it  open 
to  its  full  depth,  where  during  the  first  four  or  five  years  a 
dozen  were  needed  to  prevent  its  filling  up  entirely. 

Lake  Diaz  now,  though  covering  less  than  one-third  of  the 
area  from  which  in  ancient  times  the  gulf  was  barred  out,  has 
nevertheless  an  area  of  more  than  1,200  square  miles.  This, 
through  a  geologic  epoch  has  been  as  inhospitable  a  desert  as 
existed  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Until  thirty  years  ago  the 
barren  sands  glowed  and  blistered  there  under  the  torrid  sun, 
there  sand  and  dust  storms  were  engendered  so  thick  that  day- 
light could  scarcely  penetrate  them,  and  so  penetrating  and  all 
pervasive  that  travelers  passing  by  on  the  swift  trains  of  the 
Southern  Pacific  railway,  in  sleeping  cars,  closed  as  tightly  as 
possible  against  the  dust,  were  yet  at  such  times  almost  stifled, 
their  eyes,  mouths  and  noses  filled  with  dust,  their  seats  and 
beds  like  ash  heaps,  while  they  gasped  in  the  dust  laden  air  at 
the  temperature  of  120  Fahrenheit.  Where  this  was  the  picture 
thirty  years  ago,  now  sparkling  v/aves  are  dancing  in  the  sun- 
light, imparting  coolness  and  life  to  the  breezes  that  blow  over 


Lake  Diaz. 

157 

their  surface.     The  white  sails  of  a  hundred  pleasure  Vc 

flit  over  the  green  water,  dainty  fish  are  caught  there  sul^cit^^ 
to  supply  the  wants  of  a  million  people,  and  its  oyster  beds 
yield  the  choicest  oysters  in  the  world. 

Formerly  the  desert  here  repelled  all  atmospheric  moisture 
from  its  surface  like  a  red  hot  stove,  now  the  cool  surface  of 
the  lake,  combined  with  other  favoring  conditions  created  since 
^  Lake  Diaz  was  filled,  causes  the  precipitation  of  occasional 
showers,  and  of  heavy  dews  about  its  borders  nearly  every 
summer  night,  while  during  the  heat  of  summer  every  day  it 
pours  into  the  atmosphere  by  evaporation  water  enough  to  fill 
a  lake  a  mile  square  to  the  depth  of  a  hundred  feet,  all  of  which 
is  added  to  the  amount  that  falls  in  other  localities  formerly 
arid  over  which  the  summer  breezes  spread  it. 


154 

Perfecting  the  Earth. 

dive' 
tc 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

During  the  fall  of  1917  and  the  following  winter  the  per- 
fected industrial  plants  of  Fort  Goodwill,  manned  now  not  by 
the  army,  but  by  the  citizen  tenantry,  were  putting  forth  their 
normal  product.  The  great  steel  works  were  sending  to  the 
plating  vats  at  San  Bernardino  from  ten  to  twenty  trains  per 
day  loaded  with  structural  steel  which,  copper  plated  as  fast  as 
received,  was  piling  up  in  the  sunshine  mountain  wide  if  not 
mountain  high.  Great  reels  of  annealed  nickel  steel  wire, 
copper  plated  like  the  rest,  were  likewise  accumulating  in 
quantities  hitherto  undreamed  of.  The  lines  of  stone  founda- 
tions, which  at  our  last  account  were  sufificient,  if  massed  to- 
gether in  the  order  of  the  plan,  to  have  covered  twenty  square 
miles  of  the  four  hundred  and  fifty  included  in  the  tract  marked 
out  for  them,  had  by  the  end  of  this  year  been  carried  to  such 
an  extent  that  they  covered  one  hundred  and  twenty  square 
miles  of  that  area,  and  throughout  the  straight  reach,  extending 
from  the  upper  bend  north  of  New  Utopia,  to  the  foot  of  the 
San  Bernardino  range,  they  were  completed  and  the  working 
force  removed  to  other  parts  of  the  tract. 

At  the  intersection  of  the  northwestern  border  of  the  tract 
with  the  coast  line,  near  the  point  San  Mateo,  a  great  pier  of 
solid  masonry  was  building  on  a  point  of  rocks  that  projected 
into  the  sea,  and  over  which  the  waves  dashed  until  they  were 
fenced  out  by  the  works.  This  pier  was  designed  to  be  a 
circular  platform  five  hundred  feet  broad,  of  hewn  stone  fitted 
into  the  bed  rock,  its  sides  slanting  at  an  angle  of  thirty  de- 
grees, and  its  top  finished  at  the  height  of  ten  feet  above  high 
water  mark.     From  the  center  of  this  platform  a  straight  line 


Progress  at  San  Bernardino  and  at  Vitrc — igiJ-igiS.    157 

was  surveyed  tangent  to  the  most  projecting  points  of  the 
shore  line  and  for  nearly  fifteen  miles,  excepting  at  these  few 
points  of  tangency,  lying  wholly  in  the  shallow  water  of  the 
ocean's  margin. 

Along  this  line  at  this  time  preparations  were  making  for 
building  other  foundation  piers  at  intervals  of  a  quarter  of  a 
mile,  such  piers  being  in  the  continuation  of  each  line  of 
foundations  embodied  in  the  general  plan.  From  the  point 
where  this  ocean  front  line  intersected  the  shore  line  and  passed 
inland  it  was  continued  as  one  of  the  cross  lines  of  foundations 
to  the  southeastern  margin  of  the  tract,  which  by  design  it  met 
at  right  angles.  From  the  pier  that  marked  the  point  of  de- 
parture of  this  ocean  front  line  from  the  sea,  another  line  was 
drawn,  like  the  first  tangent  to  the  shore,  but  over  the  water, 
to  its  intersection  with  the  continuation  of  the  southeast  margin 
of  the  tract,  where  another  great  pier  was  built  similar  to  the 
first,  or  San  Mateo  marginal  pier.  The  interior  lines  of  founda- 
tions were  laid  out  at  right  angles  to  the  first,  or  San  Mateo  sea 
tangent  line,  which  made  them  also  parallel  to  the  southeastern 
margin  of  the  tract  built  upon. 

Within  the  borders  of  the  tract  thus  defined  the  work  was, 
during  this  winter  of  1917-18,  so  far  advanced  that  the  whole 
world  was  now  convinced  that  the  great  work,  whatever  it  was 
to  be,  was  to  cover  the  entire  tract,  but  as  to  its  character  and 
ultimate  purpose  the  authorities  were  as  silent  as  the  sphinx. 

Meanwhile  out  on  the  northern  margin  of  the  Mohave 
desert,  the  product  of  the  great  glassworks  at  \^itre  was  piling 
up  along  the  railway  for  miles  on  miles  in  the  form  of  stacks 
of  unpolished  plate  glass  slabs,  each  piece  like  every  other, 
rectangular,  25  inches  by  10,  half  an  inch  thick,  rolled  with 
bevelled  margins.  These  plates  were  piled  as  high  as  the 
strength  of  the  material  would  permit  without  danger  of  frac- 


158  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

ture,  each  layer  separated  from  the  others  by  leaves  of  yuca  or 
Spanish  bayonet,  and  of  these  stacks  there  were  already 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  cords. 

It  was  as  long  ago  as  1898  that  liquid  air  was  first  demon- 
strated to  the  world  as  a  substance  obtainable  automatically  in 
large  quantities  and  possessing  qualities  indicating  that  it  might 
become  a  source  of  power,  taking  the  place  which  water  filled 
in  the  steam  engine,  but  with  the  important  difference  that  in 
the  liquid  air  engine  the  heat  of  the  universe  would  serve  as 
furnace  and  fuel ;  that  on  the  coldest  day  in  the  coldest  place  on 
earth  with  liquid  air  in  the  boiler  there  would  be  heat  enough 
and  to  spare  to  produce  any  amount  of  power.  For,  while 
water  boils  at  212  Fahrenheit,  and  the  heat  available  for  power 
,^^,in  the  steam  engine  must  begin  to  count  from  that  point  as  its 
zero,  liquid  air  boils  at  minus  312  Fahrenheit,  and  in  the  liquid 
air  engine  all  heat  above  that  point  must  count  on  the  scale  as 
available  for  power. 

It  was  Charles  E.  Tripler,  of  New  York,  who,  in  1898,  after 
a  long  series  of  experiments  and  researches,  first  published  and 
demonstrated  so  much  as  this.  He  thought  he  had  the  whole 
problem  solved ;  that  he  could  build  and  operate  an  engine  that 
would  without  fuel  propel  a  ship  at  sea  until  her  machinery 
wore  out,  or  run  any  kind  or  size  of  power  plant  without  fuel 
indefinitely.  He  did  run  with  it  the  engine  that  he  used  in  his 
own  laboratory,  but,  when  the  attempt  was  made  to  utilize  the 
discovery,  practical  difficulties  that  were  hard  and  slow  to  over- 
come stood  in  the  way.  The  discovery  was  genuine,  but  when 
it  was  attempted  to  operate  an  engine  with  liquid  air  in  the 
ordinary  work  for  which  engines  are  required,  when  the  work- 
ing parts  of  the  engine  must  operate  in  a  temperature  such  that 
soft  rolled  iron  would  break  in  it  like  the  most  frangible  of 


Progress  at  ^an  Bernardino  and  at  Vitre — igiy-iQi8.    159 

glass,  in  which  the  watery  particles  in  the  atmosphere  would 
congeal  and  smother  the  engine  with  ice,  while  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  engine  was  continually  changing  through  a  range  of 
more  than  400  degrees,  all  sorts  of  breakages  occurred,  and 
stoppages  and  annoyances  w^ere  frequent  of  many  kinds  new 
and  strange.  Hence,  capitalists  and  users  of  engines,  who  were 
disposed  to  let  well  enough  alone,  condemned  the  new  power 
and  opposed  its  introduction. 

Mr.  Tripler  yet  lived,  but  his  means  were  no  longer 
adequate  to  the  prosecution  of  the  researches  needed  to  obviate 
the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  effective  application  of  his 
great  discovery  to  the  world's  work. 

However,  with  the  incoming  of  the  reform  administration, 
under  which  the  utilization  of  the  army  had  been  undertaken, 
certain  officers  of  the  government,  recognizing  the  great  bene- 
fits to  mankind  which  Mr.  Tripler's  discovery  promised,  found 
a  place  for  him  and  his  work  in  an  annex  to  the  Smithsonian 
Institute.  There,  for  several  years,  without  public  mention, 
without  the  world's  attention  having  been  in  any  way  turned 
to  the  matter,  the  researches  and  experiments  needed  were 
carried  on. 

In  the  course  of  these  researches  a  new  department  of 
chemistry  and  physics  had  been  developed.  Of  what  could  the 
working  parts  of  an  engine  best  be  made  that  must  work  in  a 
temperature  in  which  iron  and  steel  was  so  brittle  that  a  light 
l)low  would  shatter  it  into  a  thousand  fragments?  If  the  tem- 
perature of  the  whole  engine  could  be  kept  within  two  hundred 
degrees  of  the  boiling  point  from  which  its  power  originated, 
mercury  would  have  been  a  promising  metal  to  use  in  its  con- 
struction, but  with  the  temperature  of  the  earth  ever  encroach- 
ing on  such  an  engine  to  melt  it  into  a  fluid,  of  course  that 
metal  was  out  of  the  question.    Many  new  alloys  and  bronzes 


160  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

were  discovered,  and  their  qualities  under  extreme  degrees  of 
cold  ascertained.  Various  preparations  of  wood,  horn,  Indian 
rubber  and  gutta  percha  were  investigated,  and  every  depart- 
ment of  the  natural  world  ransacked  to  find  or  make  a  sub- 
stance that  should  be  strong  enough  and  fine  enough  in  texture 
to  make  an  engine  that  would  give  the  power  needed  and  re- 
main unchanged  through  the  great  range  of  temperature  to 
which  it  must  be  subjected. 

Having  such  an  engine,  with  what  could  it  be  lubricated? 
The  fact  that  in  its  working  parts  all  watery  particles  in  the  air 
and  all  minute  fragments  of  ice  that  might  become  detached 
in  the  machinery  would  become  like  crystals  of  quartz,  a  source 
of  destructive  friction,  must  be  considered.  All  oils  became 
solids  the  moment  they  were  applied  to  this  engine.  With 
alcohol,  naptha  and  most  substances  known  to  ordinary  chem- 
istry as  liquids,  it  was  the  same,  as  also  with  the  gases  formerly 
recognized  as  liquefiable.  In  this  field  it  was  that  new  dis- 
coveries in  chemistry  were  made,  and  out  of  this  new  chemistry 
the  suggestion  of  other  orders  of  material  being  has  grown. 
The  conditions  of  life  have  been  generalized  in  the  scientific 
mind  as  lying  within  a  range  of  temperature  in  which,  while 
various  substances  are  solids  to  form  a  foothold  and  framework 
for  living  things,  one  substance  must  exist  in  the  liquid  form, 
in  our  order  water,  to  serve  the  vital  functions  which  water 
serves,  and  another  or  other  substances  must  exist  in  the 
gaseous  form  to  constitute  an  atmosphere.  As  in  the  existing 
order  an  hydrate  of  oxygen  in  the  liquid  form  is  a  fluid  uni- 
versally necessary  to  life,  and  dilute  oxygen  as  a  gas  is  the  uni- 
versally necessary  atmosphere,  so  it  has  become  thinkable  that 
an  order  of  nature  might  exist  in  which  silicate  of  oxygen,  or 
quartz,  might  take  the  place  that  hydrate  of  oxygen  or  water 
takes  in  our  order  of  the  world,  and  perhaps  mixed  gases  of 


Progress  at  San  Bernardino  and  at  Vitre — igi^-igiS.    161 

oxygen  and  hydrogen,  now  combined  as  water,  might  take  the 
place  which  oxygen  and  nitrogen  takes  with  us.  On  the  other 
hand  an  order  of  material  life  is  thinkable  under  conditions  of 
temperature  in  which  hydrate  of  oxygen  shall  be  a  solid  rock, 
such  as  silicate  of  oxygen  or  quartz  is  with  us,  while  our 
atmosphere  should  be  the  water  of  that  order,  and  some  yet 
more  subtle  and  volatile  gases  should  form  its  atmosphere.  It 
is  along  the  line  of  variation  of  temperature  only  that  one 
such  order  passes  into  the  other. 

The  Tripler  liquid  air  engine  overlaps  two  such  orders, 
working  in  the  colder  order  to  use  the  normal  temperature 
of  the  warm.er  as  power.  The  steam  engine  overlapped  two 
such  orders,  working  in  the  temperature  of  the  existing  world, 
while  it  reached  into  the  warmer  for  power.  The  advantage 
of  the  Tripler  liquid  air  engine,  in  that  the  normal  heat  of  the 
world  is  for  it  furnace  and  fuel,  is  immense. 

After  four  years  of  research  and  experiment  a  satisfactory 
liquid  air  engine  was  produced,  but,  while  workable  in  engine 
houses  easily  constructed  anywhere,  or  in  the  open  air  for  that 
matter,  it  was  found  to  give  the  best  results  if  worked  in  a 
chamber  in  which  the  temperature  and  atmospheric  moisture 
can  be  controlled. 

And  now  just  where  power  was  most  needed  such  cham- 
bers were  at  hand  to  any  extent  that  might  be  desired,  in  the 
great  catacombs  of  the  San  Jacinto  mountains. 

Not  all  of  the  immense  quantities  of  stone  used  in  building 
the  great  system  of  foundation  piers  extending  up  the  valley 
of  the  Santa  Margarita,  from  the  ocean  to  the  heights  of  the 
San  Bernardino  range,  had  been  taken  from  these  catacombs. 
Quarries  had  been  opened  in  the  Santa  Ana  hills,  where  suit- 
able stone  was  found  much  nearer  to  a  large  part  of  the  field  of 
operations,  and  also  in  the  foot  of  the  San  Bernardino  range, 


162  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

nevertheless  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  stone  used  came  from 
the  San  Jacinto  quarries,  and  the  catacombs  from  which  it  was 
taken  had  grown  to  be  immense.  Even  at  the  time  of  which  we 
are  now  speaking  a  great  city  might  have  been  built  in  them 
if  a  race  of  troglodites  had  existed  there  to  prefer  such  a  site. 
Indeed,  the  long  lines  of  electric  lights  at  the  crossings  of  the 
galleries,  from  the  working  faces  of  which  stone  was  still  being 
taken  as  fast  as  ever,  made  these  catacombs  look  like  the  streets 
of  a  well  lighted  city  on  a  dark  night,  with  the  difference  only 
that  instead  of  buildings  along  the  sides  there  was  but  a 
monotonous  succession  of  windowless  square  towers  of  solid 
stone,  and  overhead,  instead  of  a  dark  sky,  there  was  the  same 
monotonous  vaulted  roof  of  rock. 

In  one  of  these  worked  out  galleries  a  length  of  840  feet 
was  now  walled  off  from  the  rest,  together  with  the  square  side 
chambers  formed  by  the  crossings  of  six  transverse  galleries, 
the  whole  forming  a  pov/er  house,  consisting  of  a  central  hall, 
840  feet  long  by  60  feet  wide,  with  six  alcoves  on  each  side,  each 
60  feet  square,  and  the  whole  60  feet  high.  In  these  chambers 
the  temperature  of  the  air  was  naturally  constant,  and  its 
moisture  could  easily  be  controlled.  They  were  fitted  up  with 
liquid  air  apparatus,  engines  and  dynamos,  capable  of  produc- 
ing 500,000  horse  power  at  the  points  of  delivery,  scattered 
about  the  field  of  operations,  at  the  average  distance  of  twenty 
miles  from  the  generating  chamber.  And,  of  course,  this  plant 
was  capable  of  enlargement  to  any  extent  that  might  be  desired. 
Into  these  power  chambers  ran  a  two-foot  water  main  to  carry 
cold  water,  for  the  purpose  of  cooling  the  air,  which  had  been 
heated  by  condensation  under  pressure,  preparatory  to  its  still 
further  cooling  in  the  liquifying  apparatus,  and  a  yet  larger 
pipe,  covered  with  non-conducting  material,  carried  the  hot 
water  out,  thus  conveying  away  the  greater  part  of  the  heat 


Progress  at  San  Bernardino  and  at  Vitrc — iQiy-igiS.    163 

abstracted  to  make  the  difference  between  the  air  at  the  tem- 
perature of  the  chambers,  65  Fahrenheit,  and  at  minus  312 
Fahrenheit,  its  highest  temperature  in  the  liquid  state,  in  a 
manner  similar  to  that  in  which  the  vapor  had  always  been 
chilled  in  the  ammonia  ice  manufacturing  apparatus,  which 
worked  on  the  same  principle,  but  preceded  the  liquid  air 
apparatus  by  several  years. 

This  liquid  air  power  applied  to  dynamos,  and  thus  con- 
verted into  its  portable  form,  electric  power,  supplied  the  great- 
est need  of  this  Southern  California  district.  In  the  Fort  Good- 
will region  the  streams  pouring  down  from  mountain  heights, 
and  the  precipitous  courses  of  the  rivers  above  the  level  of  irri- 
gation, when  properly  fitted  with  water  wheels  and  dynamos, 
were  sufficient  to  furnish  all  the  power  needed,  but  here  in 
Southern  California  nature  had  provided  of  water  but  a  scanty 
measure.  Coal,  too,  in  any  sufficient  quantities  was  far  to 
bring ;  nor  was  coal  as  a  source  of  power  ever  a  thing  to  take 
delight  in,  from  the  mine  to  the  ash  heap  it  was  always  a  blot 
and  a  blemish  on  the  earth,  an  enemy  of  beauty  and  a  poison 
to  the  atmosphere.  No  blessing  so  great  was  ever  given  to 
mankind  as  when  the  liquid  air  engine  dismissed  coal  as  a 
source  of  power  forever.  Coal  we  yet  need,  and  use  to  produce 
the  gas  with  which  we  warm  and  brighten  our  homes  when  the 
weather  calls  for  fire,  and  as  a  chemical  we  still  use  it  in  our 
smelting  furnaces  to  take  up  the  oxygen  of  the  ore,  but  since 
the  electric  smelting  furnace  has  been  perfected  we  no  longer 
use  it  there  as  a  fuel,  even  in  reducing  the  most  refractory  ores 
of  iron  into  the  toughest  wire  or  the  finest  steel.  It  needs  a 
practical  knowledge  of  the  former  epoch  to  enable  one  to 
realize  from  what  an  inferno  of  heat  and  cinders  and  stifling 
gases  the  world  has  been  delivered  bv  this  chanpfc. 


164  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

And  now  on  the  long  lines  of  stone  foundations  that  had 
so  long  been  an  enigma  to  the  world,  a  forest  of  filigree  towers 
began  to  rise,  filigree  to  the  eye,  but  of  enormous  strength,  with 
every  piece  in  the  structure  of  each  calculated  to  bear  many 
times  the  strain  ever  likely  to  come  upon  it.  Along  the  border 
foundations,  300  feet  wide  and  solid  to  the  rock  ribs 
of  the  earth,  these  towers  blend  at  their  bases,  uniting  their 
strength  in  support  of  each  other,  but  at  a  height  of  about  400 
feet  they  separate.  In  the  long  straight  reach  on  which  the 
foundations  were  first  completed,  and  to  which  part  of  the  field 
during  this  season. of  1918  the  erection  of  superstructures  was 
limited,  they  rise  to  the  height  of  1,300  feet  above  their  founda- 
tions, or  to  be  more  exact,  where  the  height  of  the  foundations 
varies,  they  rise  to  the  height  which  will  bring  their  tops,  in 
each  line  transverse  to  the  tract,  to  a  level  at  that  elevation. 

The  towers  on  the  intermediate  lines  of  foundations  are 
columns  rather  than  towers,  forty  feet  square  at  their  bases, 
their  feet  resting  on  massive  iron  slabs  centered  five  feet  within 
the  borders  of  the  foundation  and  at  points  five  feet  apart  each 
way  over  the  base  within  the  square  drawn  through  these  outer 
borders,  so  that  each  such  tower  rests  on  eighty-one  such  mas- 
sive legs,  all  braced  together.  At  the  height  of  300  feet,  and  at 
every  succeeding  300  feet  in  its  upward  course,  each  of  these 
towers  is  braced  at  the  corners  to  its  neighbors  in  each  of  four 
directions  by  tight  drawn  cables  of  steel  wire,  each  strand  of 
which  is  copper  plated.  These  bracing  cables  reach  from  the 
three  hundred  feet  level  down  to  the  foot  of  the  neighboring 
towers,  and  also  across  the  space  on  the  same  level,  while  from 
each  higher  level,  where  the  bracing  cables  attach,  they  reach 


Building  the  Great  Flue.  165 

their  neighboring  towers  at  the  level  three  hundred  feet  below 
and  also  at  the  same  level ;  thus  the  strength  of  all  contributes 
to  the  support  of  each,  and  vertical  pressure  only  needed  to 
be  guarded  against.  In  building  these  towers  every  rivet,  when 
properly  tightened,  was  carefully  brazed  with  copper,  and  each 
tower  when  completed,  covered  with  its  copper  plating,  shone 
like  gold  in  the  sunshine  without  a  wound  or  a  flaw  to  mar  its 
perfection. 

Each  of  these  towers  when  it  reached  its  ultimate  height 
was  capped  with  a  saddle  of  steel  like  those  which  support  the 
cables  in  great  suspension  bridges,  and  ultimately  above  all  an 
ornamental  cap  of  aluminum  was  to  cover  the  structure. 

While  this  forest  of  towers  was  rising,  as  the  quantity  of 
structural  steel  required  grew  within  measurable  reach,  the 
work  on  annealed  nickel  steel  wire  in  the  Fort  Goodwill  iron 
works  was  pushed  forward  the  faster,  and  the  quantity  arriving 
at  the  San  Bernardino  plating  works  grew  rapidly  greater. 

As  soon  as  a  section  of  these  towers  half  a  mile  wide  across 
the  belt  was  completed,  machines  devised  for  that  work  were 
set  to  spinning  out  of  this  wire  great  cables  across  the  tops  of 
the  towers  from  side  to  side,  anchorages  having  been  con- 
structed for  each  such  cable  outside  the  line  of  border  towers 
at  a  distance  from  their  base  equal  to  the  height  of  the  tower. 
These  cable  spinning  machines  ran  on  a  light  steel  wire  cable 
that  was  first  carried  up  and  stretched  across  the  top  of  each 
line  of  towers  to  receive  them  while  the  power  that  operated 
these  machines,  and  the  elevators  and  hoisting  apparatus,  and 
transported  all  the  material,  was  electricity  generated  by  the 
liquid  air  engines  in  the  catacombs  of  the  San  Jacintos. 

These  cables  when  completed  hung  parallel  to  each  other 
exactly  264  feet  from  center  to  center,  and  a  sag  of  250  feet  was 


166  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

allowed  in  each  quarter  of  a  mile  stretch  between  the  towers 
on  which  each  cable  rested. 

As  soon  as  each  of  these  suspension  cables  was  completed 
another  cable  considerably  smaller  was  suspended  horizontally 
beneath  it. 

The  height  of  these  horizontal  cables  here,  where  the  width 
of  the  whole  structure  was  five  miles,  was  1,056  feet,  which  is 
one-lifth  of  a  mile,  making  the  area  of  the  vertical  cross  section 
of  five  miles  width  beneath  it  equal  to  one  square  mile. 

In  so  great  a  work  as  building  this  structure  all  stages  of 
the  process  were  going  on  at  the  same  time.  As  soon  as  the 
foundations  were  finished  over  a  considerable  section  of  the 
field  of  operations  the  erection  of  towers  began,  but  at  that 
time  on  a  very  great  area  of  the  ground  to  be  covered  the 
foundations  were  not  yet  begun.  The  work  of  building  these 
towers  lasted  ten  years,  that  is  until  the  summer  of  1928,  but 
the  entire  structure  was  finished  that  year  within  six  months 
after  the  last  rivet  was  driven  and  brazed  in  building  the  last 
tower. 

When  the  towers  were  built  over  that  part  of  the  tract 
which  spread  out  to  a  greater  width  than  five  miles,  they  were 
not  made  so  high. 

On  the  line  of  piers  which  formed  the  sea  front  overhang- 
ing the  waters  of  the  Pacific,  the  towers  were  carried  to  the 
height  of  502  feet  only. 

When  the  suspension  cables  were  laid  across  them,  it  was 
done  in  seven  sections,  each  three  miles  long,  the  cables  being 
anchored  in  the  piers  within  the  structure.  Here  as  elsewhere 
250  feet  being  allowed  for  sag  between  the  towers,  the  height 
of  the  horizontal  cable  was  252  feet  above  the  foundations. 
Two  hundred  and  fifty-two  feet  is  a  few  inches  more  than  the 
twenty-first  part  of  a  mile,  hence,  the  opening  beneath  this 


Building  the  Great  Flue.  167 

horizontal  cable  being  twenty-one  miles  wide,  the  area  of  the 
vertical  cross-section  beneath  it,  as  before,  equaled  a  little 
more  than  one  square  mile. 

At  the  point  where  the  distance  from  margin  to  margin  is 
ten  miles,  the  height  of  the  towers  is  780  feet,  which  equals  the 
tenth  part  of  a  mile,  528  feet,  plus  the  250  feet  for  sag,  with 
two  feet  to  spare,  hence  here  as  elsewhere  the  area  of  the  ver- 
tical cross  section  beneath  the  horizontal  cable  is  a  trifle  more 
than  one  square  mile. 

This,  then,  was  the  law  of  the  structure,  that  it  should  be 
so  built  that  the  area  of  its  cross  section  below  the  horizontal 
or  floor  cables  should  be  not  less  than  one  square  mile. 

As  the  first  suspension  cables  drew  near  completion,  a 
large  force  of  men  began  to  make  of  the  steel,  which  had  been 
prepared  for  that  purpose,  an  immense  number  of  girders,  each 
composed  of  a  straight  top  rail  264  feet  long,  flattened  and 
curved  at  the  ends  to  form  saddles  to  fit  over  the  horizontal 
cables,  and  a  curved  bottom  rail  bending  downward  in  a  bow 
to  the  distance  of  thirty  feet  from  the  straight,  or  floor  rail,  this 
also  being  curved  at  the  ends  to  form  the  saddle,  fitting  into 
the  similar  curve  on  the  straight  rail,  to  which  it  was  firmly 
riveted,  and  these  two  throughout  their  length  were  trussed 
together  by  a  lattice  of  steel  strips  riveted  to  the  midrib  or  fin 
which  was  rolled  for  that  purpose  on  the  top  and  bottom  rails 
of  the  girder. 

Every  part  of  these  girders,  of  course,  was  copper  plated 
like  the  steel  in  the  towers  and  the  wire  in  the  cables. 

These  girders,  as  soon  as  the  cables  were  ready  to  receive 
them,  were  hoisted  to  the  horizontal  cables  and  laid  across  the 
intervals  between  them  at  the  distance  of  forty  feet  apart,  and 
stayed  one  to  the  other  with  fine  wire  cable.  To  lie  on  these 
girders,  steel  sash  were  prepared,  each  of  which  contained  a 


168  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

gravity  valve  of  one-third  of  its  area,  capable  of  yielding  to 
pressure  from  beneath  and  then  dropping  back  into  the  general 
surface,  these  valves  themselves  being  of  sash  similar  to  the 
rest.  Each  of  these  sash,  twelve  feet  by  forty  in  size,  was 
braced  beneath  in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  it  ample  strength. 
These  sash  were  made  with  leaded  beds  fitted  to  receive  the 
glass  plates  which  were  piled  up  in  such  immense  quantities  in 
the  desert,  and  which  were  still  pouring  forth  from  the  glass 
works  at  Vitre  in  undiminished  volumes. 

Suspended  on  horizontal  cables  stretched  along  the  sides 
of  the  border  towers  were  similar  sash,  but  in  these  the  gravity 
valves  constituted  two-thirds  of  the  area  and  were  capable  of 
swinging  either  way.  These  were  a  precaution  against  the 
pressure  of  hurricanes,  which,  against  an  unyielding  surface  of 
so  immense  an  area,  might  produce  a  pressure  too  great  to  be 
sustained. 

No  sooner  were  these  sash  in  place  than  workmen  were 
employed  in  putting  in  the  glass.  This  work  was  pushed  for- 
ward in  such  a  manner  that  the  mountain  end  was  completed 
first.  The  structure  passing  to  the  eastward  of  the  isolated 
summit  of  San  Bernardino  peak  was  carried  up  the  side  of  the 
great  range  to  the  height  of  10,000  feet  measured  at  the  middle 
height  of  the  structure.  Over  this  point,  the  square  mile  of 
cross  section  being  still  preserved,  the  roof,  floor,  or  ceiling, 
whichever  it  may  be  preferred  to  call  it,  terminated  in  a  strong 
railing,  while  the  side  walls  were  carried  on,  tapering  as  they 
advanced  up  the  mountain  until  they  terminated  in  points  about 
800  feet  below  the  summit  of  the  range. 

Long  before  the  structure  had  reached  this  stage  of  com- 
pleteness its  character  and  purpose  had  become  obvious.     It 
was  recognized  as  a  flue,  and  had  come  to  be  known  every- 
^/^  where  as  the  great  rain  flue  of  San  Bernardino. 


The  Mount  Ceres  District.  169 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


It  was  in  the  fall  of  1918  that  the  great  dam  on  the  upper 
Green  river  was  finished  and  the  collected  waters  of  that 
stream  were  turned  into  the  main  canal  to  flow  on  through  the 
tunneled  canal,  past  the  Green  River  highlands,  and  thence 
thirty  miles  westward  parallel  to  the  canyon  of  the  Prices  river, 
to  a  great  reservoir  which  had  been  prepared  in  the  upper 
valley  of  that  spring  freshet  stream  to  receive  them.  In  this 
reservoir  the  water  is  retained  at  the  altitude  of  5,250  feet  above 
the  sea,  and  following  the  contour  line  of  this  altitude  with 
only  just  fall  enough  to  give  a  gentle  flow  to  the  water  con- 
tained, the  canal  was  continued  southward,  winding  about  the 
base  of  the  mountain  swells,  crossing  the  ravine  of  the  San 
Rafael  river  on  a  lofty  aqueduct,  on  along  the  same  contour 
line  of  altitude,  including  several  large  storage  reservoirs  in  its 
course,  until  it'  led  again  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  Green 
River  canyon,  this  time  approaching  this  great  ravine  at  a  point 
southwestward  from  the  city  of  Mount  Ceres  and  not  far  above 
the  junction  of  the  Green  and  Grand  River  canyons  where  the 
great  canyon  of  the  Colorado  begins.  In  making  this  circuit 
the  canal  encircles  a  tract  of  irrigable  land  much  larger  than 
the  entire  Fort  Goodwill  district,  but  this,  to  the  Green  Rivei 
canyon  constitutes  the  western  division,  only,  of  the  Mount 
Ceres  agricultural  district.  The  canal,  and  reservoirs  con- 
nected with  it,  bounding  this  tract,  were  constructed  before  the 
water  was  admitted  to  the  Prices  River  reservoir. 

The  surface  of  this  tract  presents  a  greater  variation  of 
level  than  that  of  the  Fort  Goodwill  district,  ranging,  in  fact, 
through  more  than  1,200  feet,  and  to  provide  for  its  irrigation 


170  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

many  secondary  aqueducts  were  required,  similar  to  that  con- 
structed in  the  first  division  of  the  Fort  Goodwill  district,  also 
many  secondary  reservoirs  at  different  levels,  but  there  was  no 
hurry  now,  as  was  necessary  when  that  first  tract  was  irrigated, 
and  the  subsoil  system  of  irrigation  was  here  applied  to  every 
field  before  it  was  plowed  and  sown.  The  water  mains  and 
power  shafts  here  were  arranged  in  the  same  manner  as  in  the 
Fort  Goodwill  district,  but  here,  while  water  power  batteries 
were  built  on  all  streams  suited  to  receive  them,  the  main 
source  of  power  was  the  liquid  air  engines  acting  on  dynamos 
through  which  their  energy  was  transmuted  into  electricity. 

Up  the  Grand  river  in  Colorado  another  great  dam  and 
canal  were  in  process  of  construction,  which  was  completed  in 
the  following  year. 

This  was  located  about  twenty  miles  east  of  Grand  Junc- 
tion in  Colorado,  where  it  forms  a  reservoir  from  which  the 
waters  of  the  Grand  river  are  diverted  at  the  altitude  of  5,500 
feet.  Into  this  reservoir  the  waters  of  the  Gunnison  river  also 
were  afterwards  conducted  from  a  dam  located  on  that  river  a 
short  distance  above  Escalante.  This  not  only  utilizes  the 
surplus  waters  of  the  Gunnison  in  the  Utah  field,  but  also 
provides  for  the  irrigation  of  a  large  tract  of  land  lying  in  the 
angle  between  that  river  and  the  Grand  river  in  Colorado. 

The  canal  from  the  Grand  River  reservoir  is  conducted 
along  the  mountain  side  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Grand  river, 
with  just  fall  enough  to  give  the  current  sufficient  motion  to 
carry  the  stream  at  all  stages  of  flood.  Where  this  canal 
reaches  the  Utah  line  it  has  diverged  from  the  canyon  to  a 
distance  of  a  little  more  than  twelve  miles.  From  that  point 
it  takes  a  westward  course  across  the  peninsula  included  be- 
tween the  canyons  of  the  Grand  and  the  Green  rivers,  following 
the  base  of  the  Brown  Cliff  mountains,  along  the  north  side  of 


The  Mount  Ceres  District.  171 

the  broad  plain  wliich  stretches  entirely  across  the  interval 
between  those  canyons  to  the  northward  of  the  Mount  Ceres 
plateau.  This  canal  provides  for  the  irrigation  of  all  this  plain 
which  constitutes  the  eastern  division  of  the  Mount  Ceres 
irrigation  district ;  it  also  is  provided  with  several  large  storage 
reservoirs  along  its  course,  the  last  of  which  lies  near  the  Green 
River  canyon.  Into  this  reservoir  a  branch  canal  has  been 
conducted  from  the  first  basin  on  the  outflow  from  the  tunneled 
canal,  both  these  reservoirs  being  on  the  same  level.  This  con- 
nection crosses  the  Green  River  canyon  on  a  fine  aqueduct  of 
steel,  uniting  the  eastern  and  the  western  divisions  of  the 
irrigating  district  in  such  a  manner  that  a  surplus  of  water  on 
either  side  can  be  drawn  across  to  the  other,  or  a  special  de- 
mand on  either  side  can  draw  on  both  divisions  for  its  supply. 

The  altitude  of  this  entire  district  averages  more  than  500 
feet  lower  than  that  of  the  Fort  Goodwill  district,  a  large  part 
of  it  lies  at  a  level  more  than  a  thousand  feet  lower,  constituting 
the  lowest  land  in  Utah.  It  also  lies  from  120  to  150  miles 
further  south. 

In  its  efifect  on  the  climate  of  a  region  a  foot  of  altitude  is 
about  equal  to  a  mile  of  latitude,  descent  being  equivalent  to 
southing;  hence,  between  the  Fort  Goodwill  district  and  this 
the  difference  in  climate  is  marked. 

The  Fort  Goodwill  district  from  its  altitude  is  best  fitted 
for  the  products  of  the  high  north,  wheat,  barley,  oats,  the 
grasses,  and  among  fruits,  apples,  plums,  cherries  and  currants, 
while  in  this  lower  district  corn  finds  its  most  congenial  condi- 
tions, and  peaches,  grapes,  and  the  fruits  of  more  southern 
regions,  thrive  better  and  reach  a  higher  degree  of  perfection 
than  in  the  Fort  Goodwill  district.  Accordingly  the  orchards 
which  are  planted  in  this  district  are  mostly  of  this  class  of 

fruits.  See  Map,  Chapter  SI. 


172  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

At  this  time  the  preliminary  v/ork,  which  during-  the  pre- 
ceding twenty-eight  months  had  been  in  progress  preparatory 
to  building-  and  peopling  the  city  of  Mount  Ceres,  was  far 
advanced.  The  mountain  group,  whose  three  great  peaks 
tower  so  grandly  to  the  height  of  from  12,000  to  13,000  feet 
just  across  the  Grand  River  canyon  to  the  southeastward  of 
the  city,  had  been  girdled  with  a  canal  intercepting  all  the  water 
precipitated  on  those  heights  and  the  great  mountain  swell 
from  which  they  rise. 

To  reinforce  this  watershed  area  the  waters  were  collected 
in  a  similar  manner  from  the  northern  face  of  the  Abajo — lower 
— mountains,  thirty  miles  further  south,  and  from  the  highlands 
intervening  between  the  two  groups.  This  doubled  the  area 
of  watershed  from  which  the  precipitation  was  collected 
though  the  altitude  of  the  supplementary  area  not  being  so 
great  it  was  not  expected  to  double  the  water  supply. 

The  whole  tract,  so  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  was  barren 
and  arid  to  the  last  degree,  but  when  the  waters  precipitated 
on  this  area  during  the  year  were  collected  in  the  lake  prepared 
to  receive  them,  in  which  they  were  retained  at  a  level  a  little 
more  than  6,000  feet  above  the  sea,  their  volume  was  found  to 
be  very  considerable.  This  lake  has  an  area  of  from  sixty  to 
sixty-five  square  miles,  according  to  the  season,  and  its  stage 
of  flood.  It  lies  in  a  valley  on  the  saddle  of  land  between  the 
nearer  group  and  the  Abajo  mountains.  From  this  reservoir 
the  water  is  conducted  to  the  Mount  Ceres  mesa  in  two  seven 
foot  pipes,  on  an  aqueduct  crossing  the  Grand  River  canyon 
at  the  height  of  nearly  2,000  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  river. 
These  pipes  conduct  the  water  to  another  reservoir  on  the 
highest  part  of  the  Mount  Ceres  plateau,  to  which  its  admission 
is  regulated  by  float  valves,  and  the  supply  is  amply  sufficient 


The  Mount  Ceres  District.  173 

not  only  for  the  wants  of  the  city  but  also  to  irrigate  the  mesa 
abundantly. 

This  plateau  or  mesa  having  an  area  of  about  350  square 
miles  outside  of  the  city  of  Mount  Ceres  was,  as  soon  as  the 
water  supply  was  available,  put  under  the  charge  of  a  detach- 
ment of  landscape  artists  connected  with  the  board  of  forestry, 
under  whose  direction  the  greater  part  of  its  area  was  planted 
with  forest  trees. 

On  the  city  site  on  the  northwestern  shoulder  of  the 
plateau,  where  the  top  of  the  mesa  lies  about  120  feet  below  its 
general  level,  the  ground  had  been  surveyed  and  the  city  laid 
out  to  the  extent  of  twelve  square  miles,  while  the  same  terrace 
afforded  ample  room  for  extending  the  city  to  three  times  that 
area.  In  laying  out  the  city  of  Mount  Ceres,  the  same  general 
plan  was  followed  as  that  which  had  proved  so  satisfactory  in 
Fort  Goodwill,  and  during  this  autumn  of  1918  the  industries 
needed  for  the  welfare  and  comfort  of  the  city,  and  for  its 
building,  were  established  and  equipped  on  the  plain  at  the 
foot  of  the  mesa  in  convenient  relation  to  the  railroad.  The 
inclined  plane  elevators  between  this  industrial  district  and  the 
city  site  above  were  made  ample  for  every  purpose. 

During  the  following  season,  1919,  the  city  was  built  and 
provided  with  every  accommodation,  both  public  and  private, 
to  meet  the  needs  of  100,000  people,  and  it  was  then  peopled  in 
the  same  manner  as  Fort  Goodwill  had  been  peopled  before  it. 

Mount  Ceres,  as  its  name  implies,  was  designed  to  be  .  /'' 
more  distinctly  an  agricultural  city  than  Fort  Goodwill,  and  to 
extend  and  perfect  the  irrigation  and  agriculture  of  their  dis- 
trict, and  the  lines  of  access  to  and  from  its  remoter  parts,  was 
from  the  beginning  made  the  chief  industry  of  its  people,  all 
public  services,  schools  and  lectures  being  cared  for  in  the 
meantime  as  at  Fort  Goodwill  and  elsewhere. 


174  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

/  The  eight  years  following  were  occupied  in  the  completion 
of  the  works  already  inaugurated,  while  the  people  increased  in 
numbers  and  their  institutions  were  growing  in  perfection. 
/  By  the  time  the  great  flue  was  completed,  in  the  autumn 
of  1928,  the  citizen  tenantry  had  grown  to  number  more  than 
three  millions. 
^  The  enlisted  men  in  the  army  proper  were,  of  course, 
retiring  in  constantly  increasing  numbers  on  the  expiration  of 
their  age  limit,  50  years.  And  the  privilege  of  membership  in 
the  citizen  tenantry  being  always  open  to  such  of  the  enlisted 
men  as  cared  to  avail  themselves  of  it,  also  caused  the  retire- 
ment of  a  great  number.  Neither  was  death  abolished,  though 
the  death  rate  in  the  army  at  no  time  exceeded  that  in  civil  life. 
To  partially  compensate  for  these  losses  recruits  were  accepted 
in  such  young  men  as  desired  to  enlist,  of  whom  there  were 
always  some,  and  at  the  time  of  the  completion  of  the  great 
flue  the  army  yet  numbered  more  than  200,000  men. 

With  the  perfect  system  of  production  and  distribution 
developed  under  military  control  and  the  wonderfully  effective 
machinery  used,  the  eight  hour  day  had  been  adopted  for  the 
purpose  of  enabling  one-fourth  of  the  population  between  the 
ages  of  21  and  50  to  supply  all  the  consumable  wealth  of  every 
^'  kind  that  the  needs  of  the  whole  could  call  for,  while  the  other 
three-fourths  were  occupied  in  the  creation  of  world  improve- 
ments not  immediately  productive  of  wealth  nor  contributing 
to  the  needs  of  life.  This  it  was  found  easy  to  do,  and  that  with 
lavish  abundance.  Surplus  manufactures  and  products  were 
exchanged  for  every  article  of  utility  or  luxury  which  foreign 


Progress  from  ig20  to  IQ28.  175 


climes  or  other  conditions  produced ;  the  wealth  of  sea  and  land 
was  poured  into  these  commissary  stores  for  the  needs  of  all, 
until  all  desire  was  satisfied. 

The  army  was  rich ;  the  citizen  tenantry  was  equally  so, 
and  a  growing  surplus  was  left  every  year  unconsumed  which      ^_^ 
the  management  donated  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  world  at 
large  wherever  want  existed  which  that  surplus  could  relieve. 
To  consume  this  surplus  a  larger  portion  of  the  people  might 
have  been  employed  in  covering  with  forests  the  arid  lands  not 
devoted  to  agriculture,  but  even  this  work  would  in  time  be 
completed  and  it  \yas  not  thought  wise  to  hasten  it  faster  than 
it  was  now  progressing.    Mankind,  it  was  held,  did  not  live  in 
order  that  work  might  be  done,  but  work  was  to  be  done,     .  . 
rather,  in  order  that  the  conditions  might  be  such  as  best  to    y:^ 
promote  human  happiness,  that  human  beings  might  live  and 
accomplish  the  highest  purpose  of  their  existence,  namely,  their 
education  and  growth  in  right  character. 

Accordingly,  when  it  was  found  that  from  the  work  of  one- 
fourth  of  the  population  unused  wealth  was  continually  accu- 
mulating, though  the  people  had  in  their  credits  power  to 
withdraw  the  whole  of  it,  the  eight  hour  day  was  reduced  to  i^ 
six  hours,  and  to  meet  any  deficit  in  the  commissary  depart- 
ment that  might  result  from  this  reduction,  the  wealth  produc- 
ing force  was  now  recruited  from  those  employed  in  construc- 
tive works.  This  might  well  be  done  since  more  and  more  of 
these  works  were  drawing  toward  completion.  The  working 
time  of  those  employed  in  constructive  works,  the  army  proper 
as  well  as  the  citizen  tenantry,  was,  of  course,  reduced  at  the 
same  time  and  to  the  same  extent  as  that  of  the  productive 
industries.  The  first  reduction  of  the  hours  of  required  labor 
occurred  in  1924,  four  years  before  the  completion  of  the  great 
fiue. 


176  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


^ 


t 


The  minds  of  these  people  had  at  this  time  been  illumi- 
nated and  their  tastes  cultivated  by  the  constant  and  systematic 
attendance  on  the  daily  lectures,  and  by  the  remarkably  effi- 
cient schools  within  whose  circle  of  influence  they  lived,  and 
now  with  this  increase  of  leisure  there  was  a  remarkable  in- 
crease of  attention  to  the  fine  arts,  painting,  sculpture,  archi- 
tecture, landscape  art,  music,  and  the  drama,  literature  and 
philosophy,  all  these  sprang  up  and  flourished  among  the 
people  in  a  manner  new  to  the  world's  experience. 

Whoever  had  any  bent  in  any  of  these  directions  now 
found  opportunity  to  indulge  that  bent,  and  the  flood  of  talent 
that  sprang  out  of  it  was  a  surprise  to  the  world. 

The  example  of  these  millions,  while  drawing  tribute  from 
none,  becoming  not  only  self  supporting  but  rich,  and  not  only 
rich  but  cultured,  banishing  poverty  altogether  from  among 
them  and  at  the  same  time  becoming  a  peojple  of  leisure,  dis- 
tinguished for  their  intelligence,  the  breadth  of  their  knowl- 
edge, and  the  acuteness  of  their  perceptions  and  understanding, 
and  also  for  the  elegance  of  their  surroundings  and  the  refine- 
ment of  their  lives,  this  example  was  not  lost  on  the  world  at 
large.  Very  early,  as  was  noticed,  the  operations  of  the  army 
put  an  end  to  capitalism  in  the  field  of  coal  mining.  The  con- 
tact of  the  government  railroads,  built  in  connection  with  the 
various  operations  in  which  the  army  was  employed  and 
rendering  their  services  at  cost,  with  the  privately  owned  sys- 
tem taxing  the  public  what  the  traffic  would  bear,  also 
increased  the  demand  everywhere  for  public  ownership  of  rail- 
roads to  such  an  extent  that  it  could  not  long  be  resisted. 

In  response  to  this  demand  the  capitalists  sought  to  unload 
their  railroads  on  the  nation  at  the  value  at  which  they  held 
them,  based  on  the  sum  they  had  been  able  to  extort  from  the 
people  for  their  services. 


Progress  from  ip20  to  ip28.  177 

But  to  this  proposition  the  people  said,  "no;  we  will  build 
our  railroads,  or  if  we  buy  any  we  will  pay  no  more  for  them 
than  it  would  cost  us  to  build  them,"  and  a  few  trunk  lines 
built  by  the  public  and  operated  at  cost,  parallel  to  the  main 
Hues  of  traffic,  very  quickly  let  the  water  out  of  the  values  at 
which  the  railways  had  been  held  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
capitalists  were  willing  to  drop  their  holdings  for  much  less 
than  it  would  have  cost  to  build  the  system  anew. 

Similarly,  the  object  lesson  which  the  citizen  tenantry 
afforded  of  towns  prosperous  and  happy,  from  which  want  and 
the  fear  of  want  had,  by  systematic  co-operation,  been  banished 
altogether,  although  three-fourths  of  the  consumable  wealth, 
produced  by  only  one-fourth  of  the  working  force,  was  avow- 
edly taken  to  support  the  other  three-fourths  of  the  force  who 
contributed  nothing  to  its  production,  so  increased  the  restless 
impatience  of  the  people  at  large  with  the  poverty  and  depend- 
ence which  they  had  inherited,  that  legislatures,  courts  and 
municipal  councils  began  to  yield  to  the  pressure  and  authorize 
public  workshops  and  public  stores. 

The  referendum  and  iniative  on  local  measures,  with  local 
self  government,  became  the  law  everywhere,  and  towns  and 
cities  were  no  longer  forbidden  to  do  for  their  people  anything 
which  any  man  or  association  of  men  might  lawfully  do.  And 
these  rights  were  extended  to  country  townships  also.  With 
the  doors  thus  thrown  open  to  public  self  help,  and  the  brilliant 
example  of  the  military  cities  of  Utah  to  point  the  way,  growth 
in  public  co-operation  was  rapid.  Here  and  there  a  city  or  a 
town  opened  public  store  houses  and  started  public  industries 
to  stock  them,  distributing  the  goods  on  credits  for  labor.  This 
relieved  the  laboring  poor  in  these  towns  of  all  anxiety  in 
regard  to  continuance  of  employment,  and  of  all  fear  of  want ; 
they  were  now  able  to  work  for  themselves  and  enjoy  the  full 


l/ 


178  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

equivalent  of  the  product  of  their  own  labor,  and  other  towns, 
in  order  to  retain  their  population,  were  compelled  to  follow 
suit.  Of  course,  as  fast  as  such  public  co-operation  was  estab- 
lished the  profit  system  both  in  merchandise  and  manufactures 
vanished.  No  one  would  pay  a  profit  for  what  he  could  get 
at  cost. 

And  the  banking  system  and  the  landlord  system  vanished 
with  the  profit  system,  the  landlord  being  taxed  out  of  existence 
by  the  plan  proposed  by  Henry  George,  and  profit,  rent  and 
interest  were  dead. 

Thus,  while  the  co-operative  order  was  perfected  under 
government  control  on  the  arid  lands  of  the  west,  the  nation  at 
large  followed  the  same  road  only  a  little  way  behind ;  other- 
wise the  people  would  have  so  pressed  and  crowded  into  the 
citizen  tenantry  that  the  new  domain  would  have  been  overrun 
and  the  old  seats  of  wealth  and  power  left  a  desert. 


The  Great  Flue  and  New  Utopia.  179 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

At  last  in  all  that  concerned  its  functions  the  great  rain 
flue  stood  completed,  but  the  resulting  phenomena  were  a  sur- 
prise to  its  builders  and  to  the  world.  It  had  been  calculated, 
and  correctly,  that  with  the  sea  breeze  for  its  initial  impulse, 
aided  by  the  expansion  of  the  air  as  it  ascended  inside  the  flue, 
a  continuous  current  of  air  nuist  flow  through  it  from  the 
ocean's  surface  to  the  mountain's  top;  that  the  air  gathered 
from  a  belt  of  ocean's  surface  twenty-one  miles  wide  in  this 
latitude  would  at  all  times  carry  a  considerable  river  of  water 
which  must  be  precipitated  at  the  top  of  the  San  Bernardino 
range,  or  before  reaching  that  altitude,  and  this  also  had  been 
calculated  correctly.  Nevertheless  the  result  was  not  precisely 
what  had  been  expected. 

Instead  of  perpetual  rains  at  the  mountain  top,  a  blast  of 
arctic  coldness  densely  loaded  with  powdery  snow  was  the 
result,  and  to  the  surprise  of  all  the  savants  who  had  considered 
the  plan  and  pronounced  it  sound,  a  glacier  was  gathering  with 
unprecedented  rapidity  on  the  heights  of  the  San  Bernardino 
range. 

It  had  been  calculated,  and  correctly,  that  as  the  altitude 
increased  and  the  atmospheric  pressure  diminished  the  volume 
of  air  contained  in  the  flue  would  be  increased,  and  that  with 
that  increased  volume  the  velocity  of  the  current  must  increase 
in  like  proportion. 

It  had  also  been  calculated  that  as  the  pressure  diminished 
and  the  volume  of  the  contained  air  increased  its  temperature 
must  decrease ;  that  at  the  outlet  of  the  flue  where  the  baro- 
metric pressure  is  approximately  twenty  inches  when  at  the  sea 
coast  it  is  thirtv,  the  volume  and  velocity  of  the  current  would 


180  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

be  to  its  volume  and  velocity  at  the  entrance  as  three  is  to  two, 
and  that,  conversely,  the  temperature  at  the  summit  must  be 
to  the  temperature  at  the  entrance  as  two  is  to  three,  or  two- 
thirds  of  the  seacoast  temperature,  and  this  calculation,  too, 
was  correct. 

And  yet  the  blast  of  air  escaping  from  the  outlet  of  the 
great  flue  was  vastly  colder  than  had  been  anticipated.  Where 
was  the  error? 

Simply  this ;  the  savants  had  not  located  the  zero  point  of 
the  thermometer  in  the  right  place.  It  had  been  recognized 
that  the  Fahrenheit  thermometer  in  common  use  in  the  United 
States  was  arbitrary  and  unscientific ;  the  centigrade  thermo- 
,  meter,  however,  having  its  zero  point  at  the  freezing  point  of 
water  and  its  hundredth  degree  at  the  boiling  point,  was 
assumed  without  question  to  be  natural  and  scientific,  and  all 
calculations  had  been  made  with  reference  to  that. 

The  centigrade  thermometer  is  natural  and  scientific  for 
water,  as  a  water  thermometer  it  is  without  reproach,  but  we 
are  not  fishes,  air  and  not  water  is  the  fluid  in  which  we  live 
and  to  which  our  thermometric  standards  should  apply.  The 
true  zero  point  of  a  thermometer  is  not  the  freezing  point  of 
water  but  the  boiling  point  of  air,  and  that,  as  we  have  pre- 
viously had  occasion  to  notice,  is  at  minus  312  degrees 
Fahrenheit.  Hence,  when  at  the  entrance  to  the  great  flue  the 
temperature  by  the  common  thermometer  is  80  in  the  shade, 
about  the  average  daytime  summer  temperature,  that  tempera- 
ture is,  when  scientifically  stated  in  the  same  degrees,  392,  and 
at  the  outlet  of  the  flue,  the  air  being  neither  warmed  nor 
cooled,  with  the  temperature  unchanged  except  by  expansion, 
under  a  pressure  two-thirds  of  that  at  the  entrance,  the  tem- 
perature will  register  two-thirds  of  392,  that  is  261 1/3°. 
Translating  this  again  to  the  Fahrenheit  scale  it  reads  minus 


The  Great  Flue  and  New  Utopia.  181 

51 2/3°.  That  is  the  temperature  of  the  atmosphere  which 
under  a  barometric  pressure  of  thirty  inches  reads  80° 
Fahrenheit,  under  a  barometric  pressure  of  only  twenty  inches 
reads  512/3°  below  zero.  This  sufficiently  accounts  for  the 
arctic  blast  and  the  growing  glacier  at  the  mountain's  top ;  it 
also  throws  light  on  the  low  temperatures  prevailing  at  high 
altitudes.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  we  do  not  in  nature 
find  temperatures  so  low  as  51 2/3°  below  zero  at  twenty 
inches  of  barometric  pressure,  corresponding  to  80°  in  the  shade 
at  thirty  inches,  and  from  this  fact  the  statement  of  the  old 
meteorologists  that  the  sun's  rays  had  very  little  heating  power 
on  the  higher  layers  of  the  earth's  atmosphere,  but  developed 
that  power  mostly  on  the  earth's  surface,  has  been  reversed, 
and  it  is  recognized  that  thg  sun's  rays  on  the  ocean  of  atmos- 
phere that  envelopes  the  earth,  as  truly  as  on  the  ocean  of 
water,  act  most  intensely  on  the  superficial  portion  of  it,  and 
the  deepest  or  lowest  strata  are  really  the  coolest. 

During  the  years  spent  in  building  the  great  flue  the  forces 
employed  in  building  it  were  housed  comfortably  but  tempo- 
rarily in  such  manner  as  was  found  most  convenient.  Mean- 
while the  site  laid  out  for  the  city  of  New  Utopia  had  becomev-* 
a  very  beautiful  £s  well  as  a  veryextensive  park.  Lying  at  the 
mountain's  foot,  there  was  in  it  enough  of  broken  ground  and 
rocky  ravines  to  afford  abundant  opportunity  for  scenic  effect, 
ranging  from  the  most  peaceful  beauty  to  the  wildest  grandeur. 
By  all  the  artists  employed  in  the  service  and  all  the  amateur 
talent  which  such  an  enterprise  naturally  enlisted,  the  site  of 
the  city  of  New  Utopia  had  been  treated  as  the  canvas  of  a 
painter  or  the  marble  of  a  sculptor.  Every  suggestion  tending 
to  enhance  the  beauty  of  any  part  of  the  growing  city,  or  to^  i 
increase  its  convenience  or  the  comfort  or  welfare  of  its  inhabi- 


182  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

tants,  was  given  consideration,  and  out  of  the  multitude  of 
counselors  came  wisdom,  for  every  idea  of  merit  found  cham- 
pions, and  the  overwhelming  influence  of  any  single  person 
was  prevented.  Slight  errors  had  been  made,  but  the  deliberate 
method  adopted,  the  plans  of  every  building  pictured  in  rela- 
tion to  its  surroundings  being  open  for  public  inspection  for 
six  months  at  least  before  its  construction  was  begun,  allowed 
such  errors  to  be  detected  and  corrected  with  the  slightest  of 
loss. 

And  now,  among  groves  of  thrifty  young  trees,  and  adorn- 
CXing  the  loveliest  of  vistas,  groups  of  noble  buildings  have 
arisen.  Great  hotels  or  apartment  houses  are  numerous,  built 
with  all  the  graces  of  architecture,  providing  for  those  that 
dwell  in  them  all  that  could  promote  comfort  or  gratify  good 
taste,  all  harmonious  in  the  fitness  of  every  part  to  its  reason- 
able uses.  In  these  buildings,  served  with  every  possible  com- 
fort or  convenience,  veterans  are  housed  who  have  retired  from 
the  army  on  the  completion  of  their  fifty  years  of  age. 

Many  of  these  buildings  are  connected  by  artistic  corridors 

/with    each    other,   and    with    dining   rooms,   music   halls   and 

libraries,  while  all  about  them  are  lawns  and  groves,  parterres 

of  flowers  and  shrubbery,  and  curving  ways  along  which  course 

the  silent  motor  carriages  and  bicycles  flit  to  and  fro. 

In  these  great  palaces  every  family  and  every  inmate  is 
provided  with  the  strictest  privacy  as  well  as  the  conveniences 
of  association,  and  the  dignity  and  magnificence  of  habitation 
which  could  be  attained  in  large  buildings  only. 

But  in  due  proportion,  to  give  variety  to  the  whole,  to 
prevent  the  architectural  merits  of  any  building  from  being  lost 
in  a  crowd  of  other  buildings  of  equal  size  and  equal  excel- 
lence, as  well  as  to  suit  the  taste  of  such  as  prefer  the  seclusion 
of  a  house  wholly  their  ov/n,  there  are  many  small  cottages, 


J 


The  Great  Fliic  and  New  Utopia.  183 

little  gems  of  art,  so  grouped  and  placed  that  their  inmates 
may,  equally  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  more  pretentious 
buildings,  enjoy  every  convenience  of  the  public  services,  lieat-  ^-^"^ 
ing  and  cooling,  for  every  apartment  is  furnished  with  cold  air 
from  the  liquid  air  engines,  lighting  and  water,  dining  halls, 
libraries  and  all  other  felicities  which  art  could  contrive  or 
reason  desire. 

At  every  turn,  down  vistas  giving  all  that  could  be  wished 
in  the  way  of  foreground  setting,  whose  only  imperfection  W'as 
the  fact  that  all  the  trees  were  yet  young,  an  imperfection  that 
time  and  care  would  rapidly  correct,  distant  views  appeared, 
the  beauty  anil-granikur  of  wliicli  could  be  equallednowhere 
else  on  earth. 

Yonder,  a  little  to  the  east  of  north,  is  the  great  range  of 
San  Bernardino,  crowned  with  its  ever  growing  glacier,  shin- 
ing, glistening,  golden  white  in  its  high  lights,  tinted  with  lilac 
on  its  snowy  slopes,  deepening  into  purple  and  indigo  and 
ultra-marine  in  its  shadows,  capped  with  its  heaped  up  cloud  of 
driving  snow  where  the  great  flue  is  pouring  out  its  arctic 
blast ;  that  cloud  itself  in  its  cumulous  mass  shining  and  tinted 
with  lights  and  colors  comparable  only  to  those  on  the  visible 
glacier,  but  ever  changing  in  form  and  features ;  the  base  of  the 
great  glacier  edged  about  with  dark  based  clouds  where  the 
warmth  of  the  plain  and  the  frost  of  the  glacier  meet,  seeming 
to  lift  the  shining  glacier  and  its  cap  of  shining  cloud  high  into 
the  sky,  while  dark  beneath  this  cloudy  canopy  the  base  of  the 
mountain  appears  in  the  deepest  of  purple. 

This  alternation  of  mountain  base,  cloud,  and  glacier, 
exaggerates  to  the  eye  the  altitude  of  the  range,  producing  an 
appearance  of  loftiness  which  Chimborazo  or  the  Himalayas 
can  scarcely  equal.  The  brilliant  display  of  colors  is  an  atmos- 
pheric efifect  peculiar  to  these  semi-arid  regions,  developed  by 


184  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

distance,  and  changing  with  the  season,  the  weather,  and  the 
time  of  the  day.  Between  the  eye  and  this  glorious  mountain, 
and  stretching  across  the  plain  from  the  north  to  the  west  and 
the  southwest,  the  great  flue  is  seen.  The  eye  ranges  over  its 
surface  toward  the  west  and  southwest  where  it  appears,  broken 
by  the  sag  of  its  suspension  cables  into  waves  like  the  waves  of 
the  sea,  but  such  waves  were  never  seen  on  any  sea,  being  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  crest  to  crest  and  two  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  high  from  the  trough  to  the  foaming  comb,  for  the  shining 
white  of  the  aluminum  caps  of  the  towers  simulate  the  appear- 
ance of  a  foaming  wave  crest  to  perfection.  Below  this  wave 
covered  expanse,  and  toward  the  north  along  the  higher  por- 
tion of  the  flue's  extent,  rising  between  that  expanse  and  the 
eye,  stretches  the  clifif-like  wall  of  the  flue,  broken  by  the 
tracery  of  the  external  portions  of  the  supporting  towers, 
softened  into  mellowness  by  the  distance.  The  whole  mighty 
structure  appears  to  taper  out  as  it  recedes  in  the  distance, 
passing  through  the  cloud  canopy  about  the  middle  height  of 
the  mountain  yonder  up  and  up  to  the  shining  cloud  that  caps 
the  shining  glacier. 

On  the  other  hand,  toward  the  west,  where  the  wave 
spread  expanse  of  the  roof  of  the  great  flue  opens  out  like  the 
sea,  over  all  is  seen  the  shining  waters  of  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
with  the  dark  masses  of  the  Santa  Ana  hills  rising  like  an  island 
above  the  waves  on  the  right. 

Further  toward  the  south  the  swelling  foothills  of  the 
San  Jacinto  group,  now  clothed  with  forests,  sink  away  to  the 
sea,  while  from  the  south,  round  by  the  east  to  the  northeast, 
the  nearer  masses  of  the  San  Jacinto  mountains,  seamed  with 
canyons  buttressed  with  towering  clififs,  bristling  with  rocky 
pinnacles,  swell  up  toward  the  sky. 


The  Great  Fine  and  Nezu  Utopia.  185 

The  slopes  and  swelling  shoulders  of  these  mountains  are 
now  clothed  and  beautified  with  groves  of  trees  and  thick 
growing  shrubbery,  interspersed  with  openings,  on  which  the 
semitropical  growths  native  to  the  mountains  of  this  region 
display  their  characteristic  forms.  On  these  terraced  shoulders, 
lifted  above  the  spires  of  somber  pine  thrust  up  from  dark 
gulches  beneath,  are  nodding  groves  of  plumy  palms.  Yonder 
frowning  battlements  are  bristling  with  the  stifT,  sharp-pointed 
blades  of  the  Spanish  bayonet,  yucca  grandiflora,  each  leaf  of 
which  is  capable  of  serving  as  a  bayonet  in  fact,  and  the  branch- 
ing palmeas  of  the  Mexicans,  each  growing  point  of  which  is 
a  bunch  of  long  sedge-like  blades  at  the  end  of  a  pole,  with  a 
long  panicle  springing  from  its  heart  which  in  its  season  is 
filled  with  innumerable  delicate  greenish  yellow  flowers.  And 
the  prickly  pear  cactus  finds  its  home  there,  covering  rocky 
ledges  in  the  spring  with  yellow  roses,  every  rose  of  which  has 
its  many  thorns  and  great.  And  there  are  acacia  bushes  of 
many  kinds,  some  flaming  with  brilliant  flowers  of  scarlet  and 
orange  in  their  season,  and  there  are  clustering  shrubs,  smooth 
leaved  and  smooth  stemmed,  which  bear  through  the  summer 
clustering  racemes  of  large,  trumpet-shaped  yellow  flowers, 
sweet  scented  and  lined  in  their  throats  with  delicate  stripes  of 
satiny  brown.  And  about  the  lower  slopes  the  rocks  and 
shrubs  are  thickly  tangled  with  climbing  vines  which  all 
through  the  summer  are  filled  with  masses  of  brilliant  rose- 
colored  flowers  in  drooping  racemes ;  these  are  straying  varie- 
ties found  here  that  have  their  habitat  more  especially  farther 
south  in  the  Mexican  uplands,  but  here  their  presence  gives 
greater  variety  to  the  numberless  other  flowers  for  which  Cali- 
fornia is  noted. 

The  verdure  of  these  northern  and  northwestern  aspects 
of  the  mountains  in  these  latitudes  is  naturally  greater  than 


186  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

that  of  their  southern  faces,  and  here  it  has  been  greatly 
increased  by  the  protection  which  it  has  had  in  recent  years 
from  browsing-  cattle,  and  by  the  retention  of  the  water  in  the 
ravines,  so  that  now  every  rocky  clifif  is  fringed  with  green. 
Over  the  brims  of  yawning  chasms  peep  the  tops  of  mountain 
pines,  and  groves  of  oak  with  their  leaves  all  fresh  and  green 
through  the  winter  months  cover  the  slopes,  while  here  and 
there  along  the  ravines  and  among  the  crags  of  precipitous 
ledges  the  feathery  plumes  of  the  mountain  bamboo  crowd 
thick  and  close,  and  we  have  the  luxuriance  of  the  tropics 
mingled  with  the  flora  and  sylva  of  the  north. 

Such  are  the  scenes  that  form  the  background  visible  from 
every  part  of  New  Utopia,  now  appearing  through  a  lovely 
vista,  now  disappearing  behind  some  nearer  scene  of  beauty  or 
magnificence,  changing  with  every  change  of  position. 

In  the  country  lying  round  about  the  desert  is  vanishing. 

The  great  rain  flue  has  proved  a  great  snow  flue,  rather, 
but  it  has  served  its  purpose  the  better  for  that  reason.  Before 
the  great  flue  was  completed,  the  San  Bernardino  range  had 
been  girdled  with  a  great  intercepting  canal  just  above  the 
three  thousand  feet  contour  line,  with  receiving  basins  in  all 
the  ravines  above.  This  canal  is  built  in  the  strongest  manner 
possible  ;  at  every  point  where  a  break  might  possibly  occur 
it  is  of  solid  masonry  laid  in  cement.  Beginning  at  the  south- 
west side  of  the  great  peak,  just  above  Redlands,  and  passing 
under  the  great  flue,  this  canal  skirts  along  the  mountain 
toward  the  southeast  with  a  fall  of  three  feet  to  the  mile ;  pass- 
ing over  the  plateau  in  which  the  mountains  terminate  at  the 
southeastern  extremity  of  the  range,  it  continues  its  course 
back  toward  the  northwest  along  the  north  side  of  the  range. 
Just  across  the  mountains  from  the  point  of  starting,  where 
the  ravine  formerly  known  as  Deep  creek  is  reached,  a  great 


The  Great  Fhic  and  Nciu  Utopia.  187 

basin  has  been  constructed  of  enormous  strength  and  depth, 
and  this  valley  is  now  occupied  by  a  lake,  quite  small  in  area, 
but  ample  to  regulate  the  flow  of  water  into  the  system  of  canals 
and  aqueducts  which  take  their  departure  from  this  point  to 
water  the  plain  over  which  the  deadly  Mohave  desert  has 
spread  for  unnumbered  ages.  And  for  this  purpose  there  is 
water  enough,  and  enough  is  drawn  from  the  girdling  canal  to 
water  all  the  valley  between  the  San  Bernardino  and  the  San 
Jacinto  mountains,  and  to  make  meadows  and  gardens  of  all 
the  slopes  down  to  the  borders  of  Lake  Diaz. 

And  the  upper  atmosphere  being  chilled  by  the  glacier 
and  by  the  arctic  blast  from  which  the  glacier  springs,  the 
rainfall  in  the  San  Jacinto  mountains  has  doubled,  and  every 
height  from  Mexico  to  Montana  registeis  an  increase.  The 
new  planted  forests  play  their  part  in  promoting  this  humidity, 
especially  by  retaining  it  on  the  heights  in  the  sponge  of  their 
fallen  leaves  until  it  percolates  into  the  earth ;  and  as  a  conse- 
quence, new  springs  are  appearing  everywhere,  and  the  arid 
region  has  passed  away  to  be  known  no  more,  so  long  as  man 
shall  lend  nature  his  assistance  to  beautify  the  earth  and 
perfect  it. 

Yet  it  is  not  by  rains  and  showers  that  this  increased 
humidity  is  distributed.  For  ten  months  of  the  year,  over  all 
the  lower  plains  of  this  formerly  arid  region,  almost  no  rain 
falls,  and  if  water  were  not  conveyed  to  the  fields  through  the 
irrigating  mains  every  crop  would  perish  and  every  vine  and 
fruit  tree  would  die. 


188  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

But  we  have  departed  from  our  survey  of  New  Utopia,  in 
order  to  glance  at  the  changes  that  have  occurred  in  the 
country  round  about. 

Let  us  return.  When  we  wander  among  the  groves  and 
pavihons  that  now  adorn  the  shoulders  and  terraces  of  the 
San  Jacinto  mountains,  to  which  we  may  climb  or  ride  as  suits 
our  pleasure,  from  whence  the  New  Utopians,  and  all  who 
come  and  go,  look  down  on  the  earth  and  the  ocean  and  the 
glories  thereof,  along  the  borders  of  their  dark  abysses,  ren- 
dered darker  and  deeper  to  the  eye  by  the  thickets  of  pine 
rooted  in  their  crevices,  that  thrust  up  their  sombre  spires 
toward  our  feet,  or  along  the  railed  edges  of  frowning  preci- 
pices from  which  we  watch  the  birds  sailing  away  beneath  us, 
we  may  remember  that  "the  earth  is  hollow  where  we  tread, 
although  it  gives  no  sound." 

Let  us  survey  the  catacombs,  in  the  deep  recesses  of  which 
the  storehouses  and  the  granaries  and  the  power  works  of  New 
Utopia  are  all  hidden  away. 

Applying  at  the  office  of  the  custodian  of  stores  for  a  guide, 
a  man  is  sent  with  us,  and  we  are  led  to  one  of  the  main 
entrances  of  the  catacombs.  This  great  entrance,  sixty  feet 
high  and  sixty  feet  wide,  is  now  built  up  into  an  artistic  portal 
crowned  with  a  massive  coping  wall  to  protect  the  approach 
from  anything  which  might  slide  down  the  mountain  from 
above.  At  either  side  of  this  portal  rises  a  tall  column  with 
its  base  and  capital  artistically  proportioned.  Above,  a  graceful 
arch  springs  across,  its  crown  rising  nearly  to  the  top  of  the 
gallery  within.  The  keystone  and  bases  of  this  arch  are  carved 
with  appropriate  figures  in  high  relief. 


The  Cellar  of  Nczu  Utopia.  189 

Level  with  the  bases  of  the  capitals  of  the  columns,  thirty- 
three  feet  above  the  floor  of  the  entrance,  an  enamelled  metallic 
mouldin,e^  stretches  across,  behind  which  runs  a  track  for  slid- 
ing doors.  These  doors  are  thirty-three  feet  high  and  each 
fifteen  feet  wide ;  the  recesses  into  which  they  slide  are  paneled 
and  ornamented  with  figures  in  relief  adapted  from  mythology, 
appropriate  to  the  uses  for  which  the  chambers  within  are 
designed.  The  doors  themselves,  which  are  of  enamelled 
aluminum,  are  appropriately  ornamented  in  flat  relief. 

The  space  within  the  arch  above  the  doors  is  filled  with  a 
stained  glass  Vvindow,  in  sections  radiating  like  the  petals  of  a 
sunflower  whose  perimeter  corresponds  with  the  curve  of  the 
arch.  The  central  petal  is  adorned  with  the  traditional  sheaf, 
while  the  figures  in  the  stained  glass  of  the  rest  of  the  window 
are  of  fruits  and  foliage,  so  arranged  as  to  produce  a  very 
pleasing  and  artistic  efifect. 

In  the  pavement,  passing  under  the  doors,  is  a  double 
railway  track. 

Our  guide,  stepping  to  a  post  by  the  wayside,  touches  a 
button,  and  the  doors  slide  noiselessly  back  into  their  recesses. 
Passing  within,  another  button  is  pressed  and  the  doors  as 
quietly  close  behind  us. 

The  first  part  of  the  chamber  within  is  flooded  with  light 
from  the  stained  glass  window,  but  in  the  gloom  beyond  we 
see  a  line  of  brilliant  electric  lights  each  suspended  under  the 
groined  arch  formed  by  the  crossing  of  a  gallery  transverse  to 
the  one  we  have  entered  and  along  which  we  are  looking,  they 
fade  away  in  the  remote  recesses  of  the  catacombs  to  imper- 
ceptible points  in  the  dim  distance,  like  the  remote  lights  on  a 
long  street  in  a  well  lighted  city. 

As  we  pass  along,  similar  lines  appear  on  the  right  and  left 
on  the  cross  streets,  and  in  the  pavement  at  our  feet  is  a  double 


190  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

track  of  steel  as  if  for  street  cars,  but  overhead  is  nothing  but 
the  interminable  succession  of  rough  arches  of  the  quarried 
rock. 

After  passing  the  second  block,  we  discover  that  alternate 
passages  are  walled  up  in  such  a  manner  as  to  convert  them 
into  chambers,  each  of  which  is  in  the  form  of  a  Greek  cross, 
like  the  nave  and  transept  of  some  ancient  cathedral.  Each 
such  chamber  may  be  regarded  as  composed  of  five  separate 
square  parts,  each  sixty  by  sixty  feet  in  dimensions. 

These  are  the  storage  chambers,  each  of  which  is  fitted  up 
to  suit  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  used,  whatever  that  purpose 
may  be. 

Our  guide  touches  a  button  and  a  door  of  ordinary  size 
slides  open  and  admits  us  into  a  passage  within  one  of  these 
walled  off  chambers. 

This  passage  is  barely  four  feet  wide  by  seven  feet  high, 
enclosed  on  the  right  and  left  and  overhead  with  galvanized 
iron. 

This  passage  leads  directly  to  the  center  of  the  block, 
where  it  opens  into  a  chamber  of  galvanized  iron  twenty  feet 
square,  with  walls  forty  feet  high.  A  similar  passage  opens 
into  this  chamber  on  each  of  its  four  sides ;  in  its  center  is  a 
spiral  stairway  surmounted  by  a  platform  fifty  feet  above  the 
floor,  that  is  within  ten  feet  of  the  roof,  and  above  this  platform 
an  electric  light  is  suspended.  We  mount  to  this  platform 
and  perceive  that  the  four  wings  of  this  block,  together  with 
all  the  central  part  except  the  pit  through  which  we  have 
entered,  has  been  converted  into  bins,  whose  floors  and  sides 
are  lined  with  galvanized  iron,  to  keep  the  contents  of  the  bin 
from  the  wall  of  rock.  The  bottom  of  each  of  these  great  bins 
slopes  toward  the  outer  front,  where  a  line  of  elevators,  corre- 
sponding with  a  similar  line  on  the  outside,  serves  to  remove 


The  Cellar  of  Nezv  Utopia. 


191 


^^m 


=^iir£g^-^^ 


^^^M 

^^1 


The  Cellar  of  New  Utopia.  193 

the  grain  and  load  it  on  cars  outside,  or  working  the  other  way, 
to  remove  it  from  cars  and  fill  the  bin  very  quickly.  This 
machinery,  of  course,  is  operated  by  electric  power. 

We  notice  that,  rising  from  the  floor  of  these  bins  to  the 
level  of  their  top,  that  is  forty  feet,  are  rows  of  vertical  rods  or 
pipes  linked  together  at  the  top  like  the  pipes  in  steam  radia- 
tors. 

Our  guide  explains  that  these  pipes  connect  with  the 
exhaust  from  the  liquid  air  engines.  "We  can,"  he  said  "reduce 
the  temperature  of  the  contents  of  any  of  these  bins  when  filled, 
within  an  hour,  to  200  below  zero,  or  much  colder  if  desired.  L^" 
Of  course,  no  living  thing  can  long  survive  in  such  a  tempera- 
ture. With  this  arrangement  we  need  fear  no  weevil,  nor  rats 
nor  mice  either.  But,"  he  continued,  "wheat  that  has  been 
long  subjected  to  these  extreme  cold  temperatures  will  not 
grow.  Of  course,  every  seed  capable  of  growth  is  a  living 
thing.  Dry  seeds,  like  wheat,  will  bear  cold  that  nothing  with 
animal  life  in  it  can  survive,  even  the  temperature  of  liquid 
air  for  a  while,  but  if  long  continued  this  extreme  cold  is  as 
destructive  to  the  vitality  of  seeds  as  heat  would  be  if  we  should 
roast  our  grain  brown.  It  doesn't  hurt  the  grain,  however, 
for  food,  if  it  is  kept  at  300  below  zero  for  any  length  of  time." 

"But  how  about  your  seed  grain?"  we  ask.  "Oh,  yes; 
this  granary  is  so  excellent  that  seed  wheat  from  all  the  irri- 
gated region  is  sent  here  for  storage.  We  have  four  or  five 
millions  of  bushels  of  it  stored  here  every  season.  It  will  stand 
a  pretty  wide  range  of  temperature,  as  everybody  knows, 
enough  so  to  permit  us  to  protect  it  from  vermin,  but  we  don't 
freeze  it  to  death,  of  course.  The  natural  temperature  of  these 
chambers  is  about  65  Fahrenheit  the  year  round,  but  we  find 
that  the  vitality  of  seed  wheat  is  stronger  and  will  last  longer 
if  the  grain  in  storage  is  kept  at  a  temperature  of  from  36  to 


194  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

40°  from  the  time  of  harvesting  to  the  sowing,  and  it  costs 
nothing  to  regulate  the  storage  bins  to  that  temperature.  The 
same  temperature  is  right  for  keeping  apples,  potatoes  and 
most  articles  which  need  to  be  kept  cool  without  being  frozen. 
We  have  in  these  chambers  a  hundred  blocks  fitted  up  for  the 
^^  preservation  of  fruit,  potatoes,  and  vegetables,  under  cold 
storage,  and  as  many  others  for  the  preservation  of  fresh  and 
salt  meats,  of  which  we  keep  the  former  frozen  hard.  Every- 
thing that  would  tend  to  mar  the  beauty  of  the  external  world 
which  can  be  adapted  to  these  chambers  we  do  here,  but  their 
capacity  is  not  one-half  utilized." 

But  we  will  return  to  the  sunlight. 

New  Utopia,  of  course,  has  some  industries  that  can  not 
^^  be  carried  on  in  the  catacombs ;  for  instance,  the  live  stock 
department. 

Without  fresh  milk  and  butter,  no  possible  beauty  of  sur- 
roundings could  make  life  wholly  satisfactory  to  the  people, 
and  accordingly  there  is  a  dairy  establishm.ent  here  of  sufficient 
magnitude  to  supply  all  present  needs  and  capable  of  indefinite 
enlargement. 

The  barns  and  exercising  ranges  here,  and  the  system  of 
caring  for  the  cows,  being  a  repetition  of  the  same  in  Fort 
Goodwill,  need  not  be  described.  They  are  situated  on  the 
divide,  some  fifteen  miles  northeast  of  New  Utopia  center,  that 
is  five  miles  beyond  the  border  of  New  Utopia  at  the  canyon 
of  the  San  Jacinto  river,  for  the  city  park  covers  the  whole 
plateau  above  the  two  thousand  feet  level  from  the  San  Jacinto 
river  to  Coahuila  creek,  about  twenty  miles  by  fifteen. 

The  fertilizer  works,  the  sewage  evaporating  reservoirs, 
and  all  lines  of  industry  naturally  associated  with  these  are  ten 
miles  farther,  being  below  the  2,000  feet  level  on  the  east  side 


The  Cellar  of  New  Utopia.  195 

of  the  divide.     It  is  only  a  thirty  minutes  run,  however,  to 
reach  this  point  from  the  city  center  on  the  electric  railway. 

Tlie  great  intercepting  sewer,  which  with  its  accompany- 
ing subway  was  the  first  work  undertaken  toward  building  the 
city  of  New  Utopia,  has  its  outfall  basin  just  across  the  canyon 
of  the  San  Jacinto  river  over  which  it  is  carried  on  a  beautiful 
bridge.  From  this  basin  the  sewerage  is  lifted  by  pumping 
works  about  150  feet  to  enable  it  to  flow  across  the  divide  to 
the  eastward,  the  conduit  which  carries  it  serving  the  needs  of 
the  dairy  and  stock  district  and  the  outlying  industries  in  its 
course.  The  hundred  and  fifty  square  miles  or  thereabouts  of 
nearly  level  land  that  constitutes  the  divide  and  its  eastern 
slope  down  to  the  1,000  foot  level,  excepting  so  much  of  it  as  is 
occupied  by  the  dairy  and  live  stock  district  and  the  industries 
mentioned,  is  put  under  power  after  the  manner  of  the  Fort 
Goodwill  and  Mount  Ceres  agricultural  districts  in  order  to 
devote  it  to  grain  and  forage  plants  for  the  stock. 

Below  the  1,000  foot  level  on  this  eastern  side  of  the  divide, 
down  to  the  margin  of  Lake  Diaz,  the  land  is  planted  with 
oranges  and  other  tropical  fruits.  There  are  localities  here 
suited  to  the  cultivation  of  bananas  and  even  pineapples,  and 
of  malaga  grapes  and  other  delicate  and  subtropical  varieties 
there  are  extensive  vineyards. 

It  is  intended  to  produce  here  as  much  of  this  class  of 
fruits  as  the  entire  population  of  the  irrigated  lands  can  con-  y 
sume,  and  perhaps  a  considerable  excess  for  the  w^orld  at  large, 
while  of  apples  and  other  northern  fruits  the  Fort  Goodwill 
district  will  produce  enough  for  all,  and  the  Mount  Ceres  dis- 
trict will  provide  the  peaches,  pears  and  northern  grapes.  The 
grain  and  forage  fields  of  this  district  can,  of  course,  be  rein- 
forced to  any  extent  needed  from  the  desert  lands  lying  north 
of  the  San  Pj^uji^rclinc^  range. 


u 


196  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

The  territory  lying  west  of  the  great  flue  is  not  in  the 
domain  of  New  Utopia,  being  reserved  for  San  Bernardino, 
Redlands,  Los  Angeles,  and  the  older  towns  and  cities. 

The  land  lying  between  New  Utopia  and  the  foot  of  the 
^"^  great  flue,  also  the  western  face  of  the  San  Jacinto  mountains, 
and  from  their  foot  to  the  sea,  being  rugged,  is  devoted  to 
timber  and  the  landscape  art. 


Life  and  Death  in  New  Utopia.  197 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

On  the  completion  of  the  great  flue  and  the  girdhng  canal 
of  the  San  Bernardino  mountains,  there  remained  of  non- 
productive public  works  only  the  normal  extension  of  irriga- 
tion, roads,  and  forestry,  with  such  building  as  the  people 
might  wish.  At  the  same  time  the  output  of  the  iron  works  at 
Fort  Goodwill  and  of  the  glass  works  at  Vitre  shrank  to  less 
than  one-quarter  of  their  former  proportions,  and  that  of  the 
glass  works  especially  assumed  a  totally  different  character. 

This  released  a  great  army  of  men  from  the  employments 
in  which  they  had  hitherto  been  engaged. 

To  partially  offset  this,  the  force  of  teachers  in  the  schools 
and  lecturers  in  the  public  educational  courses  was  at  this  time 
greatly  increased,  and  the  lecture  courses  were  extended  into 
new  fields  and  greatly  diversified. 

It  was,  however,  found  practicable  again  to  reduce  the 
number  of  hours  of  required  service,  this  time  from  six  to  four  -/^ 
hours  per  day,  at  which  limit  it  has  since  remained  fixed. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  New  Utopia,  being  espe- 
cially designed  as  ajiome  f^r  those  retired  from  active  service 
at  the  ^ge  of  fifty  years,  was  in  larger  proportion  than  other 
places  peopled  by  these  veterans,  who  in  fact  constituted  about 
half  the  population  of  the  city. 

Not  only  these,  however,  but  all  who  had  for  a  series  of 
years  been  employed  in  the  service  were  now  trained  to  a  high 
grade  of  mental  activity  and  were  prepared  to  use  wisely  and 
enjoy  the  large  increase  of  leisure  which  was  now  at  their 
disposal. 


198  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

Nothing  can  give  a  better  birdseye  view  of  life  in  New 
Utopia  than  an  extract  from  a  copy  of  "The  Daily  Bulletin  and 
Visitors'  Guide,"  which  we  give  as  follows : 

EDUCATIONAL. 
Lectures  in  the  higher  courses.     (All  are  invited). 

PHYSICS. 

At  School  Hall  No.  3,  10:30  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  27,  2:30  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  17,  4  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  48,  10  A.  M. 

CHEMISTRY. 

At  School  Hall  No.  7,  10:30  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  32,  2:30  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  39,  4  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  5,  2:30  P.  M. 

GEOLOGY  AND   PLANETARY   EVOLUTION. 

At  School  Hall  No.  1.  10:30  A.  AI. 
At  School  Hall  No.  10,  2:30  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  22,  10:30  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  56,  4  P.  M. 

BOTANY. 

At  School  Hall  No.  2.  10:30  A.  M. 

At  School  Hall  No.  13,  2:30  P.  M. 

At  School  Hall  No.  24,  4  P.  M. 

At  Pavilion  in  Botanical  Gardens  at  4  P.  M. 

ZOOLOGY. 

At  School  Hall  No.  4,  10:30  A.  M. 
At  Zoological  Park  Pavilion,  4  P.  M. 

PHYSIOLOGY  AND   HEALTH. 

At  School  Hall  No.  11,  10:30  A.  M. 

At  School  Hall  No.  20,  2  P.  M. 

At  School  Hall  No.  44,  4  P.  M. 

At  School  Hall  No.  36,  2  P.  M. 


Life  and  Death  in  Nezv  Utopia.  199 

LANGUAGE  AND  THE  ART  OF  EXPRESSION. 

At  School  Hall  No.  12,  10:30  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  54,  2:30  P.  M. 

LITERATURE. 

At  School  Hall  No.  19.  10  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  47,  2  P.  Ml 
At  School  Hall  No.  31,  4  P.  M. 

GEOGRAPHY. 

At  School  Hall  No.  1,  2  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  15,  10  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  22,  4  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  50,  2  P.  M. 

FINE  ARTS. 

Perspective  and  Projections — At  School  Hall  No.  9,  10  A.  M. 
The  Harmony  and  Discord  of  Color — School  Hall  No.  25,  2  P.  M. 
The  Human   Figure  in  Action  and  Repose — School  Hall  No.  30, 
4  P.  M. 

Sculpture,  Modeling — At  the  Central  Gallery  of  Arts,  10  A.  M. 

ARCHITECTURE. 

At  School  Hall  No.  8,  10  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  36,  2  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  52,  10  A.  M. 

HISTORY  AND  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION. 

At  School  Hall  No.  6,  10:30  A.  M. 

At  School  Hall  No.  2,  2  P.  M. 

At  School  Hall  No.  14,  4  P.  M. 

At  School  Hall  No.  42,  10:30  A.  M. 

THE  LOGIC  OF  MATHEMATICS. 

At  School  Hall  No.  14,  10  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  7,  2  P.  M. 

ASTRONOMY  AND  COSMOLOGY. 

At  School  Hall  No.  12,  10:30  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  21,  2  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  33,  4  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  54.  10:30  A.  M. 


200  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

PHILOSOPHY  AND  PSYCHOLOGY. 
At  School  Hall  No.  18,  10  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  45,  2  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  34,  10  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  3,  2  P.  M. 

ETHICS  AND  CAUSATION. 
At  School  Hall  No.  16,  10  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  26,  2  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  40,  4  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  56,  10:30  A.  M. 

SPIRITUAL  PHILOSOPHY. 
At  School  Hall  No.  20,  10:30  A.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  46,  2  P.  M. 
At  School  Hall  No.  28,  4  P.  M. 

THE  PEOPLE'S  FORUM. 
At  City  Hall  from  7:30  to  9:30  P.  M.  daily. 
All  suggestions  which  may  have  been  dropped  in  the  boxes 
through  the  day,  proposing  any  changes  or  improvements,  are  read 
and  discussed.  If  by  three  or  more  deemed  desirable  to  be  adopted, 
they  are  booked  for  further  consideration.  Topics  thus  laid  over  from 
former  meetings  are  debated,  and  any  proposition  pronounced  worthy 
of  adoption  by  a  majority  vote  of  those  present  is  referred  to  the  public 
committee  in  charge  of  the  department  in  which  it  would  fall,  to  be 
presented  to  the  people,  with  such  suggestions  as  the  experience  of 
the  committee  would  council,  for  their  decision  whether  it  shall  be 
carried  into  effect  or  not. 

RECREATIONS. 
For  tomorrow,  September  18th. 

An  equestrian  excursion  in  the  San  Jacinto  mountains.  More 
than  1,500  will  participate.  Lunch  will  be  served  at  12:30,  on  the 
plateau  of  Mount  La  Salle,  overlooking  the  Pacific.  Starts  at  9  a.  m. 
Apply  for  horse  today  at  the  office  of  Department  of  Sports  and 
Recreations. 

Yachting  and  bathing  party  to  Lake  Diaz,  with  clam  bake  lunch 
in  grove  at  the  beach  at  1  p.  m.     Starts  at  9:30.    Trolley  cars. 

Excursions  by  trolley  cars  on  great  flue  every  half  hour  daily. 

Athletic  games  and  races.  Toboggan  slides.  Swings  and  merry- 
go-rounds  for  the  children.  With  music.  Athletic  park,  daily,  9  a.  m. 
to  4  p.  m. 


Life  and  Death  in  New  Utopia.  201 

An  excursion  to  the  ocean  beach  at  south  foot  of  great  flue, 
conducted  by  Prof.  X.  of  Marine  Zoology  and  Botany.  Lunch  will  be 
served  at  the  proper  time.    Trolley  cars.    Starts  at  10  a.  m. 

Evening:  Theaters,  concerts,  and  lectures,  in  all  parts  of  tha 
city. 


Public  dining-  rooms,  of  which  there  are  more  than  three 
hundred  in  New  Utopia,  are  all  built  with  the  utmost  regard 
for  beauty  and  convenience,  with  family  alcoves  for  those  who 
desire  them ;  they  are  ornate  with  palms  and  tropical  plants, 
adorned  with  the  finest  works  of  art,  and  served  with  music. 
The  food  is  served  and  dishes  are  removed  by  automatic 
waiters^  You  touch  the  button  which  signals  to  the  kitchen 
what  you  desire,  and  directly  it  rises  through  the  table  before 
you.  You  place  your  dishes  on  a  panel  of  the  table,  push 
another  button,  and  they  are  instantly  removed  by  the  same 
hidden  path. 

When  for  any  reason  people  prefer  to  take  their  meals  in 
their  own  houses,  pneumatic  service  tubes  convey  food  and    t-^ 
dishes  to  and  from  them  in  like  manner. 

A  trace  of  militarism  remains  in  the  custom  which  prevails 
in   New  Utopia  every  morning  to  awaken  the  city  with  a    / 
musical  reveille. 

A  modification  of  the  organ  has  been  invented  for  this 
use,  which  combines  volume  of  sound  with  softness  of  tone, 
and  which  is  accompanied  with  chimes  of  bells.  These  instru- 
ments are  placed  in  the  cupolas  and  towers  of  every  public 
building,  and  an  assortment  of  music  appropriate  to  every 
occasion  condition  and  time  of  the  year  is  provided  for  their 
use.  By  an  automatic  electrical  device  the  music  can  be  played 
simultaneously  on  each  and  all  of  these  instruments  by  a  single 
musician  operating  the  central  instrument,  all  the  niceties  of 
touch  and   modulation  being  perfectly  transmitted  to  every 


202  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

instrument  connected.  The  result  is  that  every  part  of  the  city, 
near  and  remote,  is  permeated  with  the  music.  Often  the 
people,  growing  accustomed  to  it,  are  not  aware  that  they  hear, 
yet  the  fact  i^mains,  as  experience  has  long  since  demon- 
strated, thatQ^ie  mode  and  temper  of  the  people  are  greatly 
harmonized  and  sweetened  by  the  influence  of  such  music,  even 
though  it  may  be  unconsciously  heard.7  Of  course  the  use  of 
these  instruments  is  not  limited  to  the  morning  reveille ;  at 
noonday  and  sunset,  also,  melodies  are  sounded,  and  on  every 
public  occasion,  festivity  or  funeral  of  special  note,  appropriate 
music  sounds  throughout  the  city. 

In  the  course  of  reforms  and  changes  so  sweeping  as  those 
which  have  attended  the  history  here  recited,  it  would  have 
been  strange  if  the  funeral  customs  which  had  prevailed  in 
the  civilized  world  for  ages  had  not  been  changed  also. 

It  was  early  in  the  summer  of  1920  that  the  following 
document,  signed  by  General  Theodore  Goodwill  and  nearly 
all  the  general  and  regimental  officers  under  his  command,  was 
promulgated : 

"Fellow  soldiers  and  citizen  tenantry:  The  topic  of  this 
communication  lying  outside  of  the  field  of  our  prescribed 
operations,  we  address  you  as  equals,  making  to  you  a  propo- 
sition which  you  are  free  to  accept  or  reject,  and  regarding 
which  your  actions  in  cither  case  must  be  according  to  your 
voluntary  choice. 

"From  our  youth  to  this  time,  we,  the  initial  signers  of 
this  paper,  have  been  impressed  with  the  futility  of  the  burial 
customs  prevailing  among  the  European  nations  from  pre- 
historic times. 

"In  order  that  the  memory  of  the  dead  may  be  preserved 
among  the  living,  tombstones  are  erected  over  their  graves, 
and  when,  through  the  departure  of  relatives  and  friends  of  the 


Life  and  Death  in  Nezv  Utopia.  203 

dead  from  the  vicinity,  or  for  any  other  reason,  these  monu- 
ments fall  into  neglect,  they  perish  before  the  living  by  whose 
hand  they  were  planted  pass  into  the  beyond. 

"At  a  great  waste  of  energy  and  expense  our  landscapes 
and  gardens  are  made  lugubrious,  and  the  purpose  for  which 
this  is  done  is  not  accomplished.  A  cemetery  lot  is  purchased 
in  which  to  bury  the  dead  on  the  theory  that  the  six  feet  by 
three  of  earth  occupied  by  the  grave  shall  remain  sacred  to  the 
dead  for  their  sole  occupancy  forever. 

"Yet  a  little  thought  must  show  the  absurdity  of  the  idea. 
If  such  titles  continued  to  be  respected,  but  a  few  generations 
could  pass  before  the  earth  would  be  devoted  to  the  dead  alone 
and  the  living  must  be  crowded  off  its  face.  If  they  had  been 
respected  since  these  funeral  customs  have  prevailed,  every 
acre  of  land  on  the  habitable  earth  would  long  since  have 
become  a  graveyard,  and  there  would  be  no  place  on  the  planet 
for  the  living. 

"And  yet  the  purpose  sought  by  these  funeral  customs  is 
one  which  in  the  present  state  of  science  and  art  is  easy  to 
attain.  It  is  now  possible  to  preserve  the  records  and  even  the 
likeness  of  the  dead  in  such  a  manner  that  they  shall  remain 
uninjured  and  accessible  to  the  living  to  the  remotest  future. 

"The  desire  that  one's  memory  or  the  records  of  his  life 
shall  remain  among  the  living  after  he  has  passed  from  earth  is 
natural  to  man  and  not  to  be  condemned,  and  that  this  desire 
may  be  fulfilled  and  the  records  of  each  one's  life,  who  cares  to 
make  the  arrangements  necessary  to  that  end,  shall  be  pre- 
served to  the  remotest  posterity  is  the  object  of  the  society 
which  it  is  hereby  proposed  to  organize. 

"To  this  end  we,  the  undersigned,  hereby  mutually  bind  i^ 
ourselves  to  fit  up  in  an  imperishable  manner  a  suitable  cham- 
ber, or  chambers,  in  which  shall  be  filed  away  the  records  of 


204  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

each  of  our  lives,  with  photographs  of  our  persons,  and  copies 
of  any  books  or  writings  which  we  may  have  written,  or  any 
other  matter  which  by  our  surviving  relatives  may  be  deemed 
necessary  to  a  just  and  perfect  record  of  the  person  who  has 
passed  away ;  the  whole  to  be  prepared  in  the  most  imperish- 
able manner  and  filed  away  in  order  in  its  year,  and  indexed 
with  reference  to  the  records  of  other  members  of  his  family 
or  his  immediate  ancestors  who  have  passed  before  him. 

"We  bind  ourselves,  also,  to  abandon  the  custom  of  burial 
for  our  bodies  and  to  submit  them  to  decomposition  by  com- 
bustion until  all  volatile  or  combustible  constituents  thereof 
shall  have  been  decomposed  into  their  ultimate  elements  and 
dissipated  into  the  air,  and  the  remaining  earthy  substances 
reduced  to  powder  shall  be  restored  to  the  earth  whence  they 
were  derived. 

"For  the  purpose  of  building  and  equipping  in  a  suitable 
manner  the  chambers  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the 
records  of  the  dead,  and  the  crematoriums  for  the  decomposi- 
tion of  their  bodies  as  herein  prescribed,  we  bind  ourselves  to 
contribute  one  day's  labor,  more  or  less,  as  may  be  required." 
Signed,  Theodore  Goodwill,  and  others. 

This  proposition  proved  more  popular  than  had  been 
anticipated.  It  was  signed  at  sight  by  more  than  half  of  the 
army  and  by  nearly  half  of  the  citizen  tenantry,  and  after  its 
institutions  had  become  established  there  was  a  rapid  drift  into 
the  society  of  those  who  at  first  had  hesitated  to  break  away 
from  the  customs  of  their  ancestors,  until  those  who  adhered 
to  the  ancient  funeral  custom  were  a  mere  remnant  and  sur- 
vival of  an  obsolete  rule. 

Suitable  provisions  for  carrying  out  the  purposes  of  this 
society  were  immediately  made  in  every  permanent  place  of 
habitation    throughout    the    government    domain.      At    New 


Life  and  Death  in  Nczu  Utopia.  205 

Utopia  a  choice  crossed  chamber  in  the  catacombs  was  fitted 
up  just  within  the  southwest  entrance,  where  the  external  sur- 
roundings were  most  convenient  and  suitable  for  the  solemni- 
zation of  funerals,  and  in  a  part  of  the  catacombs  far  removed 
from  any  appropriated  to  other  uses.  The  sides  and  walls  of 
this  chamber  were  covered  with  white  enamel,  its  ceiling  tinted 
with  blue,  and  its  floor  inlaid  with  tile  appropriate  to  the  uses 
for  which  the  chamber  was  designed.  The  walls  were  then 
fitted  with  strong  drawers  capable  of  sliding  out  to  give  access 
to  the  records,  but  not  easily  removed  from  their  places ;  each 
such  drawer  was  numbered  and  provided  with  blank  spaces  for 
the  dates  between  which  it  should  serve,  while  on  the  floor  were 
two  lines  of  glass-covered  cases  in  which  the  index  was 
arranged  like  the  card  index  of  a  library. 

Over  the  entrance  door  of  this  chamber  on  a  tablet  of 
granite  was  chiseled  these  words: 

"SACRED   TO  THE   MEMORY    OF    THOSE   WHO    HAVE 
PASSED  INTO    THE   HIGHER  LIFE. 
Dedicated  June  21,  1920." 

The  crematorium  was  built  in  the  midst  of  a  grove  of  pines 
just  above  this  gate  of  the  dead  into  these  catacombs.  Here, 
without  the  appearance  of  fire,  the  bodies  of  the  dead  are  con- 
sum  fi^J^XJSl^^cjty  in  the  presence  of  liquid  air  while  the 
obsequies  of  the  departed  are  in  progress. 

After  the  decomposition  of  the  body  is  completed,  the 
master  of  ceremonies,  to  the  ancient  ritual  of  "ashes  to  ashes 
and  dust  to  dust,"  sifts  the  ashes  of  the  dead  into  an  opening  in 
the  top  of  an  altar,  whence  they  pass  into  a  pneumatic  tube  and 
are  whisked  away  beyond  the  divide  to  the  eastward  to  where 
the  dust  of  the  city  is  collected  and  where  phosphate  of  Hme 
finds  its  appropriate  uses. 


206  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

For  the  use  of  the  remnant  of  people  who  still  adhere  to 
the  ancient  custom  of  burial,  a  mortuary  park  is  provided ;  this 
is  situated  on  a  terrace  of  the  western  foot  of  the  San  Jacinto 
mountains,  a  little  to  the  southward  of  the  city  and  below  the 
two  thousand  foot  level,  but  the  demand  for  its  use  for  ceme- 
tery purposes  is  very  small  and  growing  smaller  year  by  year. 


J 


The  Great  Celebration.  207 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


With  the  male  population  between  the  ages  of  twenty-one 
and  fifty  years  taxed  but  four  hours  per  day  in  the  public  ser-  y' 
vices,  and  the  women  but  two  hours,  the  whole  population  were 
now  enjoying  life  in  wealth  and  security.  The  people  of  the 
national  domain  which  had  been  reclaimed  from  the  desert 
now  lived  mostly  in  large  towns,  with  smaller  villages  serving 
as  temporary  camps  for  their  employment  in  distant  services. 

The  army,  so  much  of  it  as  remained  unabsorbed  in  the 
citizen  tenantry,  was  housed  and  employed  like  the  rest. 

In  accordance  with  an  act  of  congress  passed  during  the 
session  following  the  completion  of  the  great  flue,  the  war 
department  of  the  United  States  was  transformed  into  the 
department  of  civil  industries  and  public  works,  whose  duties  i 
it  should  be  to  direct  the  reciprocal  co-ordination  of  industries  ■ 
and  their  products  between  the  municipalities  of  the  United 
States,  under  whose  direct  charge  they  were  to  be  conducted. 

Under  the  regulation  of  this  arm  of  the  government, 
arrangements  were  made  for  transferring  all  localized  public 
works  that  had  been  built  under  the  military  regime  to  the 
charge  of  the  municipalities  that  had  grown  up  with  them, 
and  through  a  subordinate  branch  of  this  department  of  the 
government,  the  division  of  transportation  and  communica- 
tion, passengers,  freight,  express  packages,  the  postal  service, 
telegraphs,  and  long  distance  telephones,  were  systematized 
and  perfected. 

Arrangements  were  made  for  the  final  disbandment  of  the 
army  at  a  grand  celebration  of  the  fourth  of  July  of  the  year    / 


i 


208  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

1929,  to  be  held  at  a  suitable  place  high  in  the  San  Jacinto 
mountains  above  the  city  of  New  Utopia. 

For  this  purpose  a  rocky  glade  was  chosen  that  forms  a 
natural  amphitheater  a  little  above  the  6,000  feet  level,  and 
preparatory  to  the  occasion,  four  distinct  lines  of  double 
tracked  inclined  plane  railways  were  built  up  the  mountain 
to  the  terrace  that  fronts  this  amphitheater,  and  also  four 
lines  of  continuous  elevators,  similar  to  those  used  in  the  shafts 
of  deep  mines,  were  constructed  in  shafts  excavated  from  the 
catacombs  beneath. 

This  auditorium  covers  about  100  acres  and  opens  on  a 
plateau  as  large  again,  which  is  well  wooded  with  oak,  and 
from  the  margin  of  which  the  eye  ranges  broadly  over  the 
Pacific  ocean,  the  southern  part  of  the  city  of  New  Utopia,  and 
the  lower  part  of  the  great  flue,  with  the  Santa  Ana  group  of 
hills  behind,  over  the  tops  of  which  the  water  of  the  ocean  can 
be  seen.  , 

The  margins  of  this  amphitheater  are  formed  by  precipi- 
tous rocky  walls  from  75  to  200  feet  high,  which  converge  at 
the  upper  extremity  of  the  glade,  meeting  at  a  point  where, 
during  rains,  a  stream  of  water,  after  a  series  of  cascades,  leaps 
over  a  precipice  75  feet  high,  but  which  at  all  other  times  is  dry. 
This  valley,  below  this  precipice,  is  one  of  those  in  which  a 
filtering  tunnel  had  been  constructed  during  the  first  season's 
operations  in  this  region,  and  in  covering  this  tunnel  the  shal- 
low ravine  along  which  it  was  laid  was  entirely  filled  with 
broken  stone  and  gravel,  so  that  the  floor  of  the  valley  now 
required  but  little  work  to  fit  it  for  seating  the  immense  audi- 
ence which  was  to  fill  it.  At  the  head  of  this  valley,  just 
beneath  the  dry  cascade,  a  stand  was  built  for  the  speakers  and 
canopied  over  with  a  sounding  board  of  wood  in  the  form  of 
a  parabolic  reflector  with  the  speakers'  stand  in  its  focus. 


210 


Perfecting  the  Earth. 


The  Great  Celebration.  211 

Along  the  middle  line  of  this  valley,  from  the  speakers' 
stand  to  the  oak  grove  on  the  terrace  fronting  it,  a  series  of 
iron  masts  were  erected  high  enough  to  overtop  the  rock  walls 
of  the  valley  and  give  a  good  slant  to  the  stay  cables  which 
were  stretched  from  these  mast  heads  to  their  anchorages 
above  and  beyond  these  walls.  A  similar  cable  was  also 
stretched  like  a  ridge  pole  from  the  rocks  above  the  cascade 
behind  the  speakers'  stand  to  the  mast  heads  of  the  whole 
series  and  thence  to  an  anchorage  on  the  terrace  in  front,  thus 
forming  a  tent  frame  covering  the  entire  glade.  To  this  cable 
and  to  the  rings  about  the  mast  heads  to  which  the  side  stays 
were  attached,  pulleys  were  fixed,  which,  when  the  time  came 
for  the  celebration,  served  to  pull  rolls  of  canvas  into  place  and 
enclose  the  whole  valley  as  a  tent  with  a  ventilating  space  left 
open  above  the  rock  walls  all  round  the  margin. 

Under  this  canopy  the  entire  glade  was  covered  with  seats 
to  accommodate  the  500,000  people  or  more  who  were  ex- 
pected to  be  present.  The  rocky  walls  of  this  natural  audi- 
torium, together  with  the  sounding-board  reflector,  would  of 
themselves  transmit  the  voice  of  a  speaker  to  a  great  distance, 
but  within  the  distance  at  which  there  might  be  a  chance  that 
a  speaker's  voice  might  begin  to  be  indistinct  a  circle  of  per- 
fected auditorium  telephones  were  erected,  their  transmitting 
pieces  being  in  the  overarching  edge  of  the  sounding  board 
over  the  speakers'  stand.  Behind  this  row  of  telephones,  at  a 
proper  distance,  was  another  and  still  another,  until,  by  actual 
experiment,  every  word  uttered  on  the  speakers'  stand,  though 
in  a  low  tone,  could  be  distinctly  heard  in  the  remotest  seat,  or 
any  other  seat,  of  that  vast  auditorium. 

In  the  grove  outside,  tables  were  set  and  refreshments  pro- 
vided to  furnish  two  meals  for  the  hungry  multitude  expected, 


212  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

while  grove  and  auditorium  alike  were  gay  with  flags,  and 
everything  was  fitted  to  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  occasion. 

At  nine  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  this  greatest  of  celebra- 
tions the  inclined  railways  and  the  elevator  shafts  began  to  pour 
the  multitude  into  the  grove,  where  for  an  hour  they  wandered 
at  their  pleasure. 

At  ten  the  orchestra  for  the  occasion  arrived,  and,  with 
salvos  of  noisy  artillery,  stationed  near  by,  to  break  the  inter- 
vals, they  discoursed  music  to  the  multitude  until  noon. 

Then  came  the  first  meal ;  the  tables  were  spread  for  500,- 
000  and  filled,  and  there  was  an  overflow  of  some  3,500  to  be 
provided  for  at  a  second  serving.  The  meal  being  finished, 
after  another  salvo  of  artillery  the  people  fell  into  lines  and 
were  marshaled  into  the  great  auditorium  to  the  music  of  the 
Star  Spangled  Banner. 

Following  the  multitude,  the  army  marched  in  and  occu- 
pied seats  reserved  for  it  in  front,  the  music  continuing  mean- 
while. 

Then,  at  a  signal,  the  mighty  audience  rose  and  joined  in 
singing  the  national  anthem,  after  which  Colonel  M.  of  the 
educational  department  stepped  to  the  front  of  the  speakers' 
stand,  and  with  his  fine  voice  and  expressive  rendering  read 
the  old  Declaration  of  Independence. 

Another    hush    and    an    appropriate    interlude    by    the 
orchestra,  and  General  Theodore  Goodwill  stepped  to  the  front 
and  delivered  the  following  address. 
"Fellow  citizens  and  soldiers  of  the  army  of  industry: 

"One  hundred  and  fifty-four  years  ago  this  day,  the  im- 
mortal document  to  which  we  have  just  listened  was  first 
proclaimed  to  the  nations  of  the  earth.  That  declaration  was  a 
herald  of  the  future,  the  forerunner  of  a  new  order  of  things 
which  did  not  then  exist,  and  which  in  the  nature  of  things 


The  Great  Celebration.  213 

could  not  exist  until  the  competitive  and  commercial  order  of 
society,  which  at  that  time  had  hardly  blossomed,  had  brought 
forth  its  fruit,  and  ripened  it.  and  passed  away. 

"  'We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self  evident,'  says  that  im- 
mortal Declaration,  'that  all  men  are  created  equal; 'that  they 
are  endowed  by  their  creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights ; 
that  among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness ; 
that  to  secure  these  rights  governments  are  instituted  among 
men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed ;  that  whenever  any  form  of  government  becomes 
destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter 
or  abolish  it  and  to  institute  a  new  government,  laying  its 
foundations  on  such  principles  and  organizing  its  powers  in 
such  form  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their 
safety  and  happiness.' 

"Glorious  was  the  declaration  with  truth  inspired,  but  the 
time  for  its  realization  was  not  ripe. 

"Equality  was  not,  and  without  equality  life  and  liberty 
were  in  eternal  jeopardy,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  was  a 
mockery,  a  rainbow  chase  after  the  unattainable  and  impos- 
sible. 

"Unto  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,  was,  is.  and  forever  must 
be,  the  fundamental  condition  without  which  the  welfare  of  any 
community  is  impossible,  and  of  any  individual  is  insecure. 

"To  think  of  a  community  as  prospering  while  a  large  pro- 
portion of  its  individual  members  suffer  from  poverty  and 
dependence  and  oppression,  is  an  absurdity  on  its  face,  though 
from  the  beginning  of  history  until  our  own  time  the  world 
has  refused  to  see  the  absurdity  of  it. 

"The  destruction  which  overwhelms  some  must  endanger 
all.  He  that  diggeth  a  pit  for  his  neighbor's  feet,  himself  shall 
fall  therein ;  he  who  would  create  a  hell  for  his  neighbor,  him- 


214  Pej'fcctUi^  the  Earth. 

self  must  dwell  therein.  'The  measure  ye  mete  shall  be  meas- 
ured to  you  again.' 

"The  fundamental  law  which  God  enacted  for  the  govern- 
ment of  mankind  is  the  law  of  cause  and  effect,  and  that  law 
is  as  righteous  as  it  is  universal  and  eternal. 

"Who  is  there  but  would  wish  that  the  conditions  of  his 
life  should  be  the  best  that  he  can  think  of?  Who  would  not 
prefer  that  his  environment  should  be  heavenly  in  its  qualities? 
No  sane  man  or  woman. 

"Very  well ;  then  let  us  make  our  world  such  as  we  would 
have  it. 

"The  great  architect  of  the  universe  has  built  its  founda- 
tions fair;  he  has  animated  it  with  infinite  forces,  and  now,  as 
soon  as  our  character  as  a  race  is  sufficiently  perfected  to  trust 
us  with  them,  we  are  led  into  the  knowledge  how  to  harness 
these  forces  and  use  them,  in  our  service.  Even  yet  the  danger 
is  that  like  ah  infant  or  an  idiot  playing  with  dynamite  we  may 
use  these  mighty  forces  to  our  mutual  destruction. 

"Let  us  always  remember  the  rule,  unto  thy  neighbor  as 
unto  thyself;  and  if  anyone  is  not  disposed  to  admit  the  rule 
in  that  shape,  let  him  rememiber  it  in  the  converse  as  God's 
law  of  cause  and  effect  will  enforce  it,  unto  thyself  it  shall  be 
as  unto  thy  neighbor. 

"So  long  as  the  world  made  it  the  chief  and  only  honor- 
able business  of  men  to  live  at  each  other's  expense,  to  exact 
profit  and  tribute  of  each  other  and  mutually  eat  each  other  up, 
it  could  not  possibly  be  otherwise  than  that  they  should  be 
mutually  eaten  up  by  each  other. 

"Whosoever  would  make  his  neighbor  subordinate  to 
himself,  whoever  would  make  another  his  servant,  he  would 
again  build  up  among  you  those  two  reciprocal  evils,  despotism 
and  slaverv. 


The  Great  Celebration.  215 

"Whoever  seeks  for  himself  or  for  any  individual  privi- 
leges not  open  to  all;  whoever  seeks  for  himself  or  for  any 
individual  private  ownership  of  anything  for  which  an  indi- 
vidual can  have  no  private  exclusive  use,  count  that  man  an 
enemy.  There  is  no  motive  possible  among  men  that  can 
cause  anyone  to  desire  such  ownership,  except  the  desire  to 
oppress,  or  dominate  over,  the  many  who  must  use  that  which 
he  would  own. 

"So  long,  however,  as  through  your  public  organization 
you  hold  all  privileges  open  to  all  alike,  and  through  your 
public  services,  publicly  owned  and  operated,  at  the  least  pos- 
sible expenditure  provide  all  things  useful  for  the  service  of  all, 
you  need  fear  no  such  enemy. 

"Yet  it  is  well  that  you  should  know  him  and  recognize 
his  quality ;  could  he  but  persuade  the  community  to  abdicate 
some  needful  function  to  him,  he  has  wrought  your  ruin. 

"But  there  will  be  ambitious  ones  among  you,  some  whose 
souls  will  not  rest  unless  they  can  shine  among  others,  admired 
and  honored  and  distinguished  above  the  multitude.  Every 
one  who  is  spurred  by  this  impulse,  unless  the  prick  that  goads 
him  is  a  disease  that  must  for  the  common  good  be  put  under 
restraint,  has  individuality  that  will  enable  him  to  do  some- 
thing for  the  community  or  the  world  that  shall  be  distinctly 
the  tribute  of  his  own  personality,  something  that  he  can  do 
but  no  other  could.  Let  such  a  one  strive  to  render  to  the 
world  his  tribute ;  let  him  exercise  the  power  which  is  in  him 
to  give,  not  to  get. 

"  Tt  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.'  'Ye  know 
that  the  rulers  of  the  Gentiles  lord  it  over  them,  and  their  great 
ones  exercise  authority  over  them,  but  it  shall  not  be  so  among 
you.  Whosoever  would  be  great,  let  him  render  service  to  all ;" 
whosoever  desires  to  be  honored,  let  him  volunteer  to  render 


216  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

the  service  which  is  most  arduous,  that  is  fraught  with  danger 
when  danger  shall  arise ;  let  him  emulate  Napoleon's  soldiers, 
who  vied  with  each  other  to  win  at  the  cannon's  mouth  the 
cross  of  the  legion  of  honor,  and  dared  death  for  the  plaudits 
of  their  fellows.  But  your  service  will  be  to  bless  and  save, 
where  theirs  was  to  kill  and  to  destroy. 

"Obeying  this  rule,  honor  shall  go  to  those  who  are  honor- 
able, and  praise  to  the  praiseworthy,  and  'the  righteous  shall 
shine  forth  as  the  sun.' 

"Here  today,  with  that  justice  which  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  proclaimed  for  the  first  time  in  the  world's  his- 
tory an  accomplished  fact,  we  meet  to  celebrate  that  immortal 
declaration, 
.  "In  all  this  land  there  is  now  not  one  in  want  nor  in 

danger  of  want,  not  one  who  is  subordinate  to  any  other  one, 
nor  in  danger  of  such  subjection. 

"In  the  midst  of  the  overflowing  abundance  with  which 
today  we  are  blessed,  greed  would  be  insanity,  obviously  so  in 
the  eyes  of  all  men. 

"Greed  is  the  offspring  of  need;  scarcity  is  the  breath  of 
its  life.  A  world  in  which  need  and  greed  reign  supreme  is  a 
hell  in  which  all  manner  of  evils  find  their  congenial  habitat. 

"And  yet,  throughout  all  history  until  now,  need  born  of 
ignorance,  established  in  custom,  and  perpetuated  by  law,  has 
prevailed  throughout  this  world  of  ours,  and,  springing  from 
this  need,  greed  has  dominated  over  it. 

"Plant  it  as  carefully  as  they  would,  tend  it  with  all  the 
love  and  longing  that  a  bright  ideal  could  inspire,  yet  in  an 
atmosphere  of  need  and  greed  the  tree  of  liberty  sickened  and 
died. 

"See  to  it  that,  with  the  overabundant  strength  of  all,  your 
storehouses  are  ever  filled  with  plenty,  and  that  the  plenty 


The  Great  Celebration.  217 

which  fills  them  is  distributed,  with  the  freedom  of  the  rain  and 
the  sunshine  which  falls  alike  on  the  just  and  the  unjust,  to 
whosoever  hath  need. 

"Then  shall  your  excellence  and  your  beauty  and  your 
happiness  grow  brighter  forever,  until  the  vision  of  what  you 
shall  be  is  lost  in  light. 

"We  meet  here  today  in  the  midst  of  beauty  and  grandeur 
to  the  production  of  which  nature  has  lent  her  forces  and  maiv^ 
his  art,  the  equal  of  which  never  was  on  earth  before,  and  never 
would  have  been  on  earth  if  man  in  unison  with  nature  had  not 
lent  his  skill  and  his  will,  with  the  common  strength  of  the 
nation,  to  its  creation. 

"Here  where  today  a  garden  blooms  and  bears  fruitage 
as  no  Eden  ever  before  bloomed  and  fruited,  where  teeming 
thousands  find  plenty  and  delight,  less  than  a  decade  ago  nature 
spread  a  desert,  where  on  the  parched  face  of  the  earth  no 
green  thing  could  live,  and  now  here  in  the  desert  blooms  the 
fairest  garden  in  all  the  earth. 

"All  may  not  live  here,  ought  not.  The  world  is  wide  and 
must  be  peopled.  Have  we  here  created  anything  that  is  good 
and  pleasant?  Go,  then,  into  all  the  world  and  surpass  in 
excellence  the  beginnings  which  here  in  the  desert  we  have 
made.  We  have  but  pointed  the  way,  have  but  entered  upon  it 
ourselves. 

"Create  your  best  ideals  into  material  embodiments.  The 
world  is  fair,  its  forces  stand  harnessed  to  serve  your  uses.  ^ 

"If  ye  ivill  truth  and  righteousness  and  excellence  and 
beauty,  ye  may  have  what  ye  will.  The  world  awaits  you  for 
its  perfecting,  and  whosoever,  with  his  head  or  his  hand,  shall 
contribute  to  its  perfecting,  he  shall  find  joy  in  his  work. 

"There  are  other  deserts  to  water,  other  barrens  to  plant, 
other  waste  places  to  clothe  with  verdure.  Go  ye  out  into  the 
world  and  open  the  gates  of  Paradise  to  all  its  people. 


218  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

"Perfect  the  means  of  travel ;  to  him  who  dwells  among 
the  palms  of  the  tropics  a  sojourn  among  the  glaciers  of  Green- 
land or  the  eternal  desolations  of  the  Antarctic  continent  will 
be  the  fullness  of  life;  and  there  is  no  part  of  this  wonderfully 
varied  planet  to  which  all  may  not  be  given  access  at  their 
pleasure. 

"Let  all  mankind  enjoy  the  earth  and  the  fullness  thereof." 

Turning  to  the  army,  which  at  a  signal  now  rose  to  its 
feet,  the  General  continuing  said:  "Soldiers  of  the  army  of 
industry :  It  has  been  your  good  fortune  to  open  to  the  world 
a  new  and  brighter  era. 

"When  your  energies  were  turned  from  arms  to  imple- 
\/ments,  from  war  to  peace,  from  tearing  down  to  building  up, 
your  country  knew  not  what  to  do  with  you,  nor  with  itself. 
The  earth  and  the  fullness  thereof  was  appropriated  by  a  few. 
The  energies  of  mankind  were  held  in  restraint.  The  wheels  of 
industry,  except  as  they  could  grind  more  wealth  into  the 
possession  of  those  who  already  had  all  wealth,  and  further 
power  into  the  hands  of  those  who  already  dominated  all 
governments,  were  forbidden  to  turn. 

"Your  maintenance  in  uselessness  was  destruction  to  you, 
and  it  was  a  burden  too  grievous  to  be  borne  to  a  people 
already  overladen,  yet  there  were  neither  homes  nor  occupa- 
tions that  could  receive  you. 

"But  you  were  led  into  the  desert  where  no  man  lived,  and 
Inhere,  turning  your  energies  to  useful  industry,  you  have 
become  self  supporting ;  more  than  that,  you  have  become  rich  ; 
you  who  are  of  the  active  forces  of  industry  have  more  leisure 
now  than  any  millionaire  twenty  years  ago  could  enjoy,  and 
culture  has  opened  to  you  her  portals. 

"In  banishing  poverty  from  among  yourselves,  you  have 
y^  banished  it  from  the  world.  The  truth  which  you  have  wrought 
into  an  object  lesson  has  set  free  the  human  race. 


The  Great  Celebration.  219 

"You  each  and  all  have  your  homes  now,  furnished  in  all 
convenience  and  embowered  in  all  beauty.  You  who  are  yet 
within  the  years  of  public  service  all  have  your  duties  under  a 
system  that  gives  to  your  work  the  highest  degree  of  efficiency ; 
you  will  return  to  your  homes  and  to  your  duties,  and  to  the 
joys  of  your  life,  but  no  longer  as  an  army. 

"The  citizen  tenantry  receives  you  all. 

"As  for  myself  and  the  general  staff,  we  crave  the  privi- 
leges of  private  life,  to  which  our  age  and  services  have  long 
since  entitled  us. 

"We  desire  homes  in  yon  fair  city  at  our  feet,  without  the 
responsibilities  of  office,  where  we  may  move  as  equals  among 
you. 

"Our  resignations  have  been  accepted  by  the  government. 

"You  go  to  your  homes  enfranchised  with  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  free  citizens,  and  the  gratitude  and  thanks  of 
an  emancipated  world  go  with  you, 

"I  now  promulgate  to  you  the  order  which  is  to  be  my  last 
official  act.     The  army  is  hereby  disbanded." 

So  solemn,  so  earnest,  so  impressive,  was  this  address  that 
the  mighty  audience,  who  during  the  address  to  the  army  had 
instinctively  risen  to  their  feet,  stood  for  a  moment  in  silence, 
lost  to  themselves  and  their  surroundings.  Then  rousing  to 
consciousness  they  cheered  until  the  canvas  that  covered  the 
great  amphitheater  waved  like  the  sea  in  a  storm,  and  all  the 
flags  waved  as  if  in  sympathy. 

Then  the  artillery  fired  another  salvo,  and  while  the 
orchestra  played  "My  Country,  'tis  of  Thee,"  the  great  audi- 
ence filed  out. 

It  was  now  4  p.  m.  The  bulletin  displayed  on  the  rostrum 
when  the  exercises  were  finished,  which  was  also  posted  here 
and  there  about  the  grove,  announced,  "Supper  will  be  served 


220  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

in  the  grove  at  5 :30  p.  m.  Fireworks  will  begin  at  7 :30.  For 
best  view,  take  seats  in  the  auditorium." 

The  multitude  had  an  hour  and  a  half  in  which  to  wander 
as  they  pleased,  while  the  music  played,  and  the  cannon  thun- 
dered their  noisy  chorus  in  the  interludes.  When  the  audience 
had  passed  out,  a  screen  was  drawn  across  the  front  of  the 
auditorium,  behind  which  the  scene  shifters  were  busy.  When, 
after  the  evening  meal,  this  screen  was  withdrawn,  a  mighty 
change  had  come  over  the  scene.  The  canopy  which  in  the 
afternoon  had  shaded  the  vast  auditorium  was  gone,  while  all 
around,  where  the  bare  walls  of  rock  had  been,  now  spread  the 
bay  of  Naples  with  Vesuvius  smoking  in  the  distance,  a  pano- 
rama to  which  the  rocky  wall  of  the  amphitheater  lent  itself 
admirably.  The  central  part  of  the  scene,  however,  where  the 
speakers'  stand  had  been,  was  fitted  with  shifting  scenery,  and 
the  platform  and  the  rocks  above  were  arranged  for  the  exhibi- 
tion of  fireworks. 

And  now  as  the  shades  of  night  closed  in,  rockets  began 
to  shoot,  and  the  sky  was  filled  with  all  manner  of  rainbow- 
colored  meteors. 

The  landscape  glowed  lurid  with  red  fire  and  flashed  up 
into  brilliancy  with  hidden  lightning.  Now  amidst  lightnings 
and  volcanic  fires  and  rushing  floods  the  submergence  of 
Atlantis  is  exhibited. 

Then,  on  the  scenery  of  the  main  landscape,  Vesuvius 
begins  to  mutter  and  glow ;  Pompeii  is  alive  again  before  our 
eyes,  and  again,  amidst  fire  and  rolling  darkness  and  confusion, 
it  is  overwhelmed,  while  Vesuvius  spouts  fire,  alternating  with 
clouds  of  dust  and  ashes. 

And  now  Rome  is  burned  while  Nero  with  his  voluptuous 
company  revels  before  our  eyes. 


The  Great  Celebration.  221 

Sweeping  back  through  a  oxle  of  time,  Bdshazzar's  feast 

IS  enacted  before  us,  and  other  brilHant  scenes  from  history 

and  mythology.  ^ 

Now  it  is  the  great  fire  in  Chicago  seen  from  the  lake,  and 
finally  m  splendid  brilliancy  and  gigantic  proportions  the  alle- 
goncal  figures  of  Peace  and  Plenty  appear  and  bestow  their 
blessmgs  on  all,  and  this  most  noteworthy  of  all  celebrations  of 
the  fourth  of  July  is  ended. 


222  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

''And  I  saw  no  temple  therein." — Rev.  21: 22. 

New  Utopia  is  a  rapidly  growing  city,  and  its  location 
provides  for  a  long  continuance  of  rapid  growth ;  it  is  full  of 
halls  and  auditoriums  of  many  kinds,  but  a  visitor  from  any 
town  that  had  grown  under  the  ancient  regime  would  notice 
the  absence  of  chur(;hes.  In  fact  there  is  not  a  church  in  New 
Utopia. 

It  was  early  in  June  of  1930,  while  wandering  about  the 
city  enjoying  its  every  varied  beauty  and  its  peace,  we  entered 
a  shady  grove  in  the  midst  of  which  stood  a  Greek-temple-like 
structure  of  white  marble. 

This  contained  no  inner  chamber,  but  its  roof  and  upper 
structure  were  supported  entirely  on  the  columns  that  stand 
instead  of  its  walls.  There  were  curtains,  however,  that  could 
be  dropped  between  the  columns  to  enclose  the  auditorium 
when  and  so  far  as  might  be  desired.  This  was  Herron 
Pavilion.  There  was  a  speaker's  stand  in  it  and  chairs  for  the 
purpose  of  seating  an  audience.  A  bulletin  on  the  front  steps 
announced  a  lecture  in  this  auditorium  at  10  a.  m.,  next  Sun- 
day, by  Professor  D.  "On  Religion  versus  Philosophy ;  some 
advanced  thought  from  the  nineteenth  century,  exemplified  by 
Kidd's  Social  Evolution,  and  an  essay  by  an  obscure  writer  of 
the  same  epoch." 

This  was  Saturday  afternoon,  and  we  decided  to  hear  the 
professor  in  the  morning,  thinking  that  he  would  be  likely  to 
throw  some  light  on  the  views  prevailing  in  New  Utopia. 

Returning  to  the  pavilion  at  the  appointed  time,  we  en- 
tered and  took  seats.  The  speaker's  stand  was  at  the  south 
end,  and  behind  this  and  on  the  eastern  side  the  curtains  were 


224 


Perfecting  the  Earth. 


\ 


A  Neiv  Utopian  Sunday  Lecture.  225 

dropped.  The  audience  entered  from  the  north  which  was 
open  to  the  free  air  of  heaven,  as  was  the  west  side  also.  There 
was  choral  singing,  and  reading  of  elevating  literature  and 
poetry,  a  little  preliminary  ritual  in  fact,  suitable  to  awaken 
high  thoughts  and  sentiments,  such  that  one  might  almost 
fancy  himself  in  one  of  the  liberal  churches  of  the  latter  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  speaker  began  by  saying:  "The  book  Avith  which  we 
open  our  subject  today  is  one  that  had  considerable  attention 
during  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  among  think- 
ing people,  or  at  least  people  who  liked  to  be  thought  such, 
and  the  critics  generally  approved  it. 

"We  will  endeavor  to  glean  from  the  book  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  convey  a  just  and  correct  idea  of  the  author's  argu- 
ment and  position. 

"As  indicated  by  his  title,  Mr.  Kidd  poses  as  an  evolu- 
tionist par  c.x'ccllcncc.  His  first  postulate  is  this :  'Progress  is 
the  result  of  selection  and  rejection.  If  all  individuals  were 
allowed  equally  to  propagate,  a  process  of  slow  degeneration 
would  ensue.  The  condition  of  progress  is  therefore  one  of 
continual  strain  or  stress.'  This  he  further  emphasizes  and 
particularizes  elsewhere  by  declaring  his  conviction  that : 
'There  can  be  no  progress  except  by  the  accumulation  of  con- 
genital variations  above  the  average  to  the  exclusion  of  those 
below.' 

"We  shall  probably  agree  with  Mr.  Kidd  that  a  condition 
of  strain  or  stress  resulting  in  the  propagation  of  the  superior 
and  the  weeding  out  of  the  inferior  would  greatly  favor  and 
accelerate  progress,  but  the  chief  causes  of  the  strain  and  stress 
on  humanity  to  which  Mr.  Kidd  refers  have  been  war,  and 
religious  persecution,  and  we  know,  and  it  is  hard  to  under- 
stand how  the  author  could  have  failed  to  know,  that  through- 


226  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

out  the  historic  period  war  has  weeded  out  from  among  man- 
kind the  physically  best,  and  religious  persecution  has  weeded 
out  the  intellectually  and  morally  best,  while  the  human  race 
has  been  propagated  mostly  from  the  culls ;  and  .yet  there  has 
been  progress.  It  would  seem  as  if  some  factor  has  been  at 
work  that  does  not  appear  in  Mr.  Kidd's  formula. 

"But  hear  him  further.  Since  a  condition  of  strain  or 
stress  is  not  a  pleasant  one,  and  the  strain  and  stress  which  has 
existed  could  have  been  avoided,  Mr.  Kidd  says :  'There  can 
be  no  rational  sanction  for  the  conditions  of  proigress,  because 
the  future  does  not  concern  any  existing  people.*  That  the 
remote  future  does  not  and  cannot  concern  the  living  is  a 
statement  that  Mr.  Kidd  seems  to  think  self  evident,  and  he 
makes  it  an  essential  link  in  his  chain  of  argument.  Yet  you 
who  are  now  listening  will  strongly  dissent  from  it,  for  the 
reason  that  you,  from  a  rational  sanction,  have  attained  the 
concept  and  conviction  of  the  continuity  of  life,  a  concept  and 
conviction  that  Mr.  Kidd,  the  religionist,  evidently  did  not 
entertain  nor  believe  possible,  and  would  not  have  approved  if 
he  had  believed  it  possible. 

"But  hear  him  continue.  'There  seems  to  be  no  escape 
from  the  conclusion  that  the  only  social  doctrines  of  today 
which  have  the  assent  of  reason  for  the  masses  of  mankind  are 
those  of  socialism ;  and  socialism,  which  would  put  an  end  to 
the  stress  and  strain  of  life,  would  be  utterly  destructive  to 
future  progress.' 

"One  would  like  to  go  back  40  years  and  ask  Mr.  Kidd 
whether  it  might  not  be  possible  that  the  desire  to  realize  an 
ideal  better  than  present  attainments  might  be  a  factor,  at 
least,  of  a  stress  and  strain  from  which  progress  might  arise  ; 
and  whether,  considering  the  obvious  fact  that  mankind,  under 
the  stress  and  strain  of  the  fear  of  want,  bred  mostly  from  those 


A  Nczv  Utopian  Sunday  Lecture.  227 

who  knew  least  of,  and  cared  least  for,  ideals,  it  might  not  pro- 
mote instead  of  prevent  progress  to  shift  the  stress  and  strain  to 
a  higher  plane? 

"But  hear  the  conclusion  which  Mr.  Kidd  draws  from  the 
premises  which  we  have  cited.  'The  interests  of  the  individual 
and  those  of  the  social  organism  to  which  he  belongs  are  not 
identical ;  on  the  contrary  the  central  fact  in  progressive  society 
is  that  the  interests  of  the  social  organism  and  those  of  the  in- 
dividuals composing  it  are  actually  antagonistic  and  inherently 
irreconcilable.'  This  conclusion  he  makes  a  fundamental 
principle  of  all  his  following  argument. 

"No  words  of  mine  could  make  the  reduction  to  an  ab- 
surdity more  complete  or  more  obvious  than  his  own.  He 
holds  that  in  order  that  society  may  fare  well,  the  people  that 
cqriipose  it  must  fare  ill ;  and  yet  the  orthodox  thinkers,  and 
the  critics,  of  the  nineties  swallowed  all  that  without  a  grim- 
mace. 

"Having  discovered  this  wonderful  fundamental  principle, 
our  author  proceeds  to  use  it  in  showing  how  human  society, 
for  its  own  good,  from  the  beginning  of  history,  has  been  held 
to  a  line  of  conduct  opposed  to  reason  and  antagonistic  ^o_the 
welfare  of  the  people. 

"Hear  him,  he  says:  'The  central  fact  of  human  history 
is  religion.  Religion  is  not  only  independent  of,  but  in  direct 
conflict  with  the  intellectual  forces.'  *  *  *  'The  forces 
against  which  man  is  engaged  throughout  the  historic  struggle 
are  none  other  than  those  enlisted  against  him  by  his  own  rea- 
son." *  *  =^  'Throughout  all  history  we  witness  man 
driven  by  a  profound  instinct  which  finds  expression  in  his 
religion  recognizing  a  hostile  force  in  his  own  reason.' 
*  *  *  'The  central  feature  of  human  history  is  the  struggle 
which  man  throughout  the  whole  period  of  his  social  develop- 


228  Perfcctino^  the  Earth. 

ment  has  carried  on  to  effect  the  subordination  of  his  own 
reason,  its  motive  has  been  suppHed  by  his  religious  beliefs.' 

"Regardless,  for  the  moment,  whether  such  a  line  of  con- 
duct has  promoted  or  retarded  progress,  whether  it  has  been 
helpful  or  harmful  to  the  human  race,  there  is  abundant  ground 
for  the  assurance  that  regarding  the  character  of  religion  as  it 
has  been  a  power  among  men,  and  the  function  it  has  per- 
formed, and  the  part  which  it  has  played  in  history,  our  author 
has  in  the  sentences  quoted,  but  told  the  simple  truth: 

"But  we  will  defer  our  comments  until  he  has  developed 
his  argument  further. 

"  'The  function  of  these  beliefs  in  evolution,'  he  says,  'is  to 
provide  a  siiperratwnal  sanction  for  conduct  necessary  to 
progress  for  which  there  can  be  no  rational  sanction.'  Then 
he  proceeds  to  define  religion.  'The  central  element  in  all 
religious  beliefs,'  he  says,  'must  be  the  ultra  rational  sanction 
which  they  provide  for  social  conduct.'  *  *  *  'There 
jiever  can  be  such  a  tliinp-  as  a  rationnl  religion.'    'No  form  of 


belief  is  capable  of  functioning  as  a  religion  in  the  evolution  of 
society  which  does  not  provide  an  ultra  rational  sanction  for 
social  conduct  in  the  individual. /A  rational  religion  is  a 
scientific  impossibility,  representing  from  the  nature  of  the  case 
an  inherent  contradiction  of  terms.'  "And  in  this  connection 
he  recognizes  philosophy  and  religion  as  antagonistic,  it  being 
the  aim  of  philosophy  to  find  a  rational  sanction  for  beliefs 
which  religion  rests  on  an  ultra  rational  basis,  in  which  so  far 
as  philosophy  can  succeed,  such  beliefs  can  no  longer  function 
as  religion. 

"In  all  this  again  we  must  admit  that  Mr.  Kidd  has  truth- 
fully characterized  historical  religion. 

"Priestcraft,  from  the  beginning  of  history,  has  denied  the 
right  to  think.    To  accept  rationally  the  substance  of  his  dogma 


A  New  Utopian  Sunday  Lecture.  229 

has  never  been  satisfactory  to  the  rehgionist;  it  must  be  ac- 
cepted unreasoning-ly  on  faith,  on  the  ipse  dixit  of  his  'thus 
saith  the  Lord.' 

"When,  for  instance,  his  dogma  of  a  future  hfe  was  ac- 
cepted thus  it  had  sufficient  vitahty  for  the  priest  to  add,  on  its 
strength,  a  deeper  terror  to  the  king  of  terrors,  but  not  suffi- 
cient vitahty  to  dehver  the  poor  rehgionist  from  the  fear  of 
death:  'The  fear  o'  hell's  a  hangman's  whip,  to  baud  the 
wretch  in  order.' 

"The  religionist  usually  thought,  and  habitually  spoke,  of 
the  one  who  had  passed  into  the  higher  life  as  lying  in  his 
grave.  The  priest  did  not  in  any  rational  sense  believe  in  his 
own  dogma,  and  for  the  one  who  would  prove  it  true  he 
reserved  his  deepest  curse. 

"Acceptance  of  the  ultra,  or  super,  rational  sanction  that 
our  author  insists  on,  is  the  submission  of  the  soul  to  slavery, 
the  poor  religionist  abdicating  his  right  to  think. 

"So  long  as  large  bodies  of  people  will  accept  this  slavery 
the  priest  can  hold  dominion  over  them ;  when  they  reject  it 
and  insist  on  a  rational  sanction,  religion  has  ceased  to  function 
and  the  occupation  of  the  priest  is  gone.  'The  truth  shall  set 
men  free.' 

"Our  author  finally  sums  up  his  conclusions  in  this  first 
part  of  his  book  in  this:/.'Tliaf  eY,n1ii<-ion  is  not  primarily  in- 
tellectual but  religious,  its  most  distinctive  feature  being  that 
through  the  law  of  natural  selection  the  race  must  grow  ever 

I  HT  ■  » 

more  and  more  religious.'   ^_^^ 

"He  could  write  this  in  the  midst  of  a  people  among  whom 
the  religion  that  he  had  defined,  with  its  ultra  rational  authority 
had  long  since  lost  its  power;  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  the 
most  religious  nations,  using  the  word  according  to  his  own 
definition,  Spain,  Turkey,  Persia  were  decadent,  while  every 


230  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

people  to  whom  religion  was  the  chief  concern  of  their  lives 
were  unprogressive  and  behind  their  age ;  in  the  face  of  the 
fact,  obvious  throughout  history,  that  nothing  else  in  human 
nature  has  been  so  utterly  reactionary,  so  uniformly  and  in- 
tensely opposed  to  all  progress,  as  the  religion  which  he  has 
defined,  religion  that  has  through  all  history  arrayed  mankind 
against  their  own  reason  ;  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  minds  of  men  from  its  bondage  has  proved  every- 
where the  first  condition  necessary  to  progress. 

"Mr.  Kidd  is  a  sophist  to  the  priests'  taste.  He  never  hesi- 
tates to  invert  and  reverse  the  most  obvious  facts,  provided  he 
can  do  so  under  the  semblance  of  reasoning. 

"Is  this  a  subtle  plan  of  his  to  discredit  the  antagonist 
against  which  he  has  arrayed  himself,  the  human  reason?  If 
his  were  a  fair  sample  of  reasoning  it  could  not  well  be  denied 
that  the  effort  was  successful. 

"Religion,  such  as  he  champions,  with  its  ultra  rational 
sanction,  has  burned  the  world's  Brunos,  imprisoned  and 
tortured  its  Gallileos,  opposed  and  interdicted  with  its  ultra 
rational  authority  every  newly  discovered  truth,  every  ray  of 
divine  light  that  has  come  to  illuminate  the  human  under- 
standing; it  has  massacred  or  banished  from  whole  nations 
every  one  who  dared  to  think  and  be  loyal  to  truth  as  it  was 
given  him  to  perceive  it,  and  left  in  the  land  to  propagate  the 
race  only  the  stupid  who  could  not  think,  the  coward  who 
dared  not,  and  the  hypocrite  who  cared  too  little  for  truth  to 
sacrifice  anything  for  its  sake. 

"Let  us  rejoice  that  among  us  Mr.  Kidd's  principle  of 
progress,  religion  with  its  ultra  rational  sanction  and  its  irre- 
concilable antagonism  to  human  reason  and  the  welfare  of  the 
individual,  is  as  extinct  and  as  fossil  as  the  pterodactyl. 

"Before  entering  on  the  second  part  of  our  subject  let  us 
sing  the  Ode  to  Truth."    (Page  27  of  the  Choral  Songster.) 


A  Nezv  Utopian  Sunday  Lecture.  231 


CHAPTER  XXVI.  : 

(A  New  Utopian  Sunday  Lecture,  Continued.) 
A  Scientific  Basis  for  Another  Order  of  Being. 

Rested  and  harmonized  by  the  music  and  sentiment  of  this 
ode,  the  audience  was  again  in  a  receptive  mode  for  the  second 
part  of  the  lecture. 

The  Professor  resumed :  "The  last  quarter  of  the  nine- 
tenth  century  was  marked  by  the  final  conflict  in  the  world  of 
thought,  between  materialism  and  spiritualism.  Before  the  end 
of  the  century  the  battle  was  so  far  decided  that  the  case  for 
materialism  was  hopeless,  nevertheless  the  hyper-conservative 
and  reactionary  types  of  mind  failed  to  recognize  that  fact,  and, 
as  always,  with  their  backs  toward  the  light  of  the  morning, 
persisted  in  their  allegiance  to  outworn  and  dying  error. 

"In  this  class,  of  course,  were  found  all  who  with  Mr.  Kidd 
held  to  religion  with  its  ultra  rational  sajiction.  The  battle  was 
in  the  field  of  reason,  and  though  a  future  life  was  a  funda- 
mental dogma  of  religion,  nay  for  that  very  reason,  to  prove  the 
continuity  of  life,  and  convince  the  thinking  world  of  its  truth 
on  a  rational  basis,  would  be  fatal  to  religion  with  its  ultra 
rational  principle. 

"This,  in  fact,  is  precisely  what  has  killed  it.  The  life  of 
religion  was  tied  up  in  the  absurd,  the  irrational,  the  self-con- 
tradictory; in  its  irrational  dependence  on  arbitrary  and, 
miraculous  power,  instead  of  the  principle  of  cause  and  effect, 
to  produce  the  results  desired  or  expected ;  in  its  dogmas,  oL 
the  trinity,  which  was  absurd,  of  the  vicarious  atonement, 
which  was  immoral  and  pernicious,  and  of  the  resurrection  of 


V 


232  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

the  material  body,  which  was  demonstrably  false.  But  their 
very  absurdity  and  unreason  made  these  dogmas  serviceable  to 
a  principle,  the  vitality  of  which  depended  on  unreason,  on  the 
subordination  of  reason,  on  the  blind  acceptance  of  blind  au 
thority  with  its  ultra  rational  sanction.  The  church  was  the  last 
stronghold  of  materialism,  and  when  materialism  passed  into 
the  limbo  of  ancient  errors  the  church  vanished  with  it. 

"But  we  are  to  review  this  morning  some  of  the  phases 
of  the  battle  in  which  materialism  was  finally  overthrown.  For 
this  purpose  I  have  chosen  an  essay  by  an  obscure  writer  of  Mr. 
Kidd's  epoch,  from  an  obscure  magazine  that  I  found  some 
time  ago  among  a  lot  of  old  papers  in  the  general  library.  The 
topic  of  the  essay  is,  'A  Scientific  Basis  for  Another  Order  of 
Being.' 

"Our  author  says  that:  'Materialism  essentially  consists 
in  the  teaching  that  all  real  existence  consists  of  tridimensional 
matter,  occupying  space  to  the  exclusion  of  other  things,  and 
that  all  phenomena  are  manifestations  of  its  functions. 
Materialism  is  really  based  on  the  assumption  that  that  which 
cannot  be  perceived  has  no  real  existence,  not  a  postulate, 
notice,  not  stated  as  a  fact  upon  which  argument  is  based,  but 
an  assumption  unconsciously  taken.  The  scientific  materialist, 
if  this  assumption  were  formulated  as  we  have  formulated 
it,  would  be  compelled  to  deny  its  truth,  nevertheless  in  deny- 
ing this  assumption  he  would  knock  the  foundation  from  under 
every  argument  that  materialism  can  rest  on. 

"Science  never  produced  a  materialist  more  decided  than 
the  late  Professor  W.  K.  Clififord,  who  died  in  the  assurance 
that  death  was  the  end  of  all  things  with  him,  yet  the  teachings 
of  Professor  Clififord  overthrow  that  foundation  of  materialism. 

"Professor  Clifford  says :  'Radiant  heat,  which  is  physi- 
cally identical  with  light,    is  capable     of    doing    work.     Any 


\ 


A  New  Utopian  Sunday  Lecture.  233 

change  which  possesses  energy  is  a  motion  of  matter.  In  that 
sense,  and  in  that  sense  only,  it  is  a  matter  of  demonstration 
that  light  consists  of  the  periodic  motion  of  matter,  of  some- 
thing which  is  between  the  luminous  object  and  the  eye ;  but 
that  something  is  not  matter  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word, 
it  is  not  made  up  of  such  molecules  as  gases,  liquids  and  solids 
are  made  of.' 

"  'This  statement  is  no  guess,  but  proved  fact.  The  sort  of 
evidence  we  have,  to  show  that  light  consists  of  waves  trans- 
mitted through  a  medium,  is  the  sort  of  evidence  that  footsteps 
in  the  snow  make;  it  is  not  a  theory  which  simply  accounts 
for  the  facts,  but  a  theory  which  can  be  reasoned  back  to  from 
the  facts  without  any  other  theory  being  possible.' 

"So  much  from  Professor  Clifford.  But  here  let  us  remark 
that  the  word  matter  was  applied  to  the  substance  of  which 
things  are  composed  before  the  scientific  mind  had  conceived 
of  anything,  or  tlie  possibility  of  anything,  lying  behind  solids, 
liquids  and  gases,  out  of  which  solids,  liquids  and  gases  might 
be  formed,  and  lacking  the  properties  by  which  solids,  liquids 
and  gases  are  recognized ;  hence,  in  that  stage  of  science  the 
word  matter  very  properly  applied  to  the  fundamental  sub- 
stance out  of  which  all  known  things  were  formed.  Matter  in 
this,  its  proper  and  original  sense,  is  always  characterized  by 
the  qualities  of  weight,  inertia  and  impenetrability,  by  which 
qualities  it  is  made  perceptible  to  our  senses.  When,  from  the 
advances  of  scientific  knowledge,  scientists  began  to  conceive 
the  reality  of  something  imperceptible,  lacking  the  qualities  by 
which  matter  is  recognized,  lying  behind  matter  as  it  had  been 
known  and  defined,  out  of  which  they  came  to  perceive  that  all 
perceptible  matter  was  formed,  most  of  them,  like  Professor 
Clifford,  extended  the  meaning  of  the  word  matter  backward 
to  cover  the  new  concept,  and  applied  it  both  to  the  thing 


234  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

created  and  to  that  out  of  which  it  was  created.  This,  of 
course,  led  to  much  confusion  of  language  and  some  confusion 
of  thought,  and  we  find  Professor  Clifford  talking  about  matter 
which  is  not  matter  in  the  ordinary  sense,  and  others  talking 
about  this  imperceptible  something  as  being  the  only  real 
matter,  thus  denying  to  solids,  liquids  and  gases  their  right  to 
the  word  which  had  been  applied  to  them  and  to  nothing  else 
from  the  beginning  of  scientific  language.  When  the  mind 
grasps  a  new  concept  lying  outside  of  the  domain  of  previous 
thought  and  language,  it  needs  a  new  word.  At  least  nothing 
but  confusion  can  come  out  of  using  an  old  word  in  distinct  and 
diverse  meanings.  When  a  word  has  come  to  mean  everything 
it  has  ceased  to  mean  anything. 

"Confining  the  word  matter,  then,  to  its  original  and  ordi- 
nary meaning,  it  is  known  to  consist  of  molecules  or  atoms, 
which  in  gases  are  flying  about  freely,  getting  as  far  from  each 
other  as  the  pressure  will  permit.  In  liquids  the  molecules  roll 
or  slide  freely  upon,  or  at  a  nearly  invariable  distance  from 
each  other ;  and  in  solids  each  molecule  has  a  fixed  limit  within 
which  it  moves — for  all  are  moving — never  exchanging  places 
with  others. 

"Of  the  size  of  these  molecules,  Sir  William  Thomson, 
since  dubbed  Lord  Kelvin,  says :  'If  you  were  to  magnify  a 
drop  of  water  to  the  size  of  the  earth,  then  the  coarseness  of  the 
graining  of  it  would  be  somewhere  between  that  of  cricket  balls 
and  small  shot.' 

'Tn  regard  to  the  physical  constitution  of  these  molecules, 
the  name  of  this  great  scientist  is  associated  with  a  theory  that 
seems  to  be  the  only  one  that  has  any  present  scientific  stand- 
ing, namely,  the  vortex  ring  theory.  Vortex  rings  are  pro- 
duced in  air  and  gases  by  friction  against  the  edges  of  the  open- 
ing through  which  they  escape  with  a  puff.    Everyone  has  seen 


A  Nczu  Utopian  Sunday  Lecture.  235 

such  rings  formed  of  smoke  discharged  with  a  short  pufif  from 
the  Hps  of  a  smoker. 

"The  vortex  ring  theory  of  matter  was  due  originally  to  a 
mathematical  discussion  by  the  German  professor,  Helmholtz, 
of  the  properties  of  vortex  rings  in  a  hypothetical  fluid,  which 
should  be  continuous  and  incapable  of  compression  or  friction. 
The  result  ascertained  was  that  under  these  conditions  a  vortex 
ring  must  be  permanent,  impossible  by  any  conceivable  means 
to  produce,  but  if  it  once  existed,  impossible  to  destroy ;  it 
could  move  freely,  but  could  not  be  added  to  nor  substracted 
from.  These  properties  suggested  to  Sir  William  Thomson 
that  such  rings  would  form,  a  basis  for  a  new  form  of  atomic 
theory  in  better  accordance  with  known  facts  than  any  other 
which  had  been  proposed.  Accordingly,  he  made  further  re- 
searches on  this  hypothesis  and  found  that  the  facts  conformed 
to  the  theory  as  far  as  it  was  possible  to  test  them. 

"This  theory  is  not  a  fixed  certainty  such  as  Professor 
Clifford  describes  the  wave  theory  of  light  to  be,  but  a  working 
hypothesis  thus  far  unimpeached,  and  probably  true,  enabling 
us  to  extend  our  researches  from  the  known  out  into  the  un- 
known. 

"It  may  be  that  tJuit  mode  of  integration  of  atoms  out  of  a 
continuous  substance  is  true,  it  may  be  that  some  other  mode 
not  yet  conceived  of  is  the  form  of  their  constitution,  but  that 
the  ultimate  atoms  of  matter  as  known  to  chemistry  and 
physics  are  in  some  way  formed  of  an  imperceptible  sul:)stance 
in  which  they  remain  immersed,  is  well  nigh  certain. 

"  'This  primitive  fluid,'  says  Professor  J.  Clerk  Maxwell, 
in  the  Encyclopedia  Britanica,  'has  no  other  known  properties 
than  inertia,  invariable  density,  and  perfect  mobility.'  Perfect 
continuity  had,  however,  been  previously  stated  of  it ;  that  is 
continuity  in  the  sense  of  being  without  intervals  or  spacing 


236  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

between  its  parts,  without  the  intervening  spaces  that  exist  be- 
tween the  molecules  of  all  forms  of  perceptible  matter.  'Ac- 
cording to  Thomson/  continues  Professor  Maxwell,  'though 
the  primitive  fluid  is  the  only  true  matter,  yet  that  which  we  call 
matter  is  not  the  primitive  fluid  itself,  but  only  a  modification 
of  that  primitive  fluid.  The  primitive  Hiiid  itself  entirely  eludes 
our  perceptions  when  it  is  not  endued  with  the  mode  of  motion 
which  converts  portions  of  it  into  vortex  rings  and  thus  renders 
it  molecular.' 

"Professor  Maxwell,  however,  continuing  his  discussion  of 
this  primitive  fluid,  assumes  it  to  be  subject  to  the  laws  of  ordi- 
nary matter.  Ignoring  the  perfect  continuity,  invariable 
density,  and  other  qualities  just  recognized  as  pertaining  to  this 
primitive  fluid  that  fills  all  space,  he  assumes  it  to  consist  of  an 
exceedingly  thin  and  tenuous  gas.  On  this  assumption,  taking 
the  velocity  of  the  light  wave  and  the  ascertained  amount  of 
energy  received  on  the  earth  from  the  sun  in  a  given  time  for 
his  data,  he  applies  his  formulae  to  determine  the  co-efificient  of 
rigidity  and  the  density  of  the  ether.  In  this  way  he  reaches 
this  conclusion :  'In  interplanetary  space,  therefore,  the  ether 
is  very  dense  as  compared  with  the  attenuated  atmosphere, 
which,  according  to  the  law  of  expansion  of  gases,  would  exist 
in  the  same  region,  but  the  whole  mass  of  the  ether,  within  a 
sphere  whose  radius  is  that  of  the  orbit  of  the  most  distant 
planet,  is  very  small  compared  with  that  of  the  planets  them- 
selves.' 

"This  conclusion  is  obviously  inconsistent  with  the  facts 
which  Thomson  and  Helmholtz  have  established,  and  which 
Professor  Maxwell  himself  accepts  in  the  outset  of  his  paper. 
The  fallacy  to  which  this  error  is  due  is  no  less  obvious. 

"Density  is  measured  by  weight,  but  according  to  the 
theory  of  Thomson  and    Helmholtz,    which    is    provisionally 


A  New  Utopian  Sunday  Lecture.  237 

adopted  by  Professor  Maxwell,  weight  is  a  property  acquired 
by  virtue  of  the  vortex  motion  which  forms  the  atoms  and  con- 
verts the  primitive  fluid,  the  ether,  into  matter;  hence  regard- 
ing density  as  measured  by  weight  the  density  of  the  ether 
should  be  zero.  Yet  since  the  ether  is  continuous,  filling  space 
between  the  atoms  in  all  forms  of  gross  matter,  since  the  vortex 
motion,  by  virtue  of  which  the  atoms  of  gross  matter  exist,  only 
applies  to  a  part  of  the  space  which  that  matter  considered  as  a 
mass  occupies,  and  since  the  ether  affected  by  that  motion  is 
not  condensed  or  concentrated  thereby,  its  density  being  in- 
variable, it  follows  that  considering  density  as  opposed  to 
porosity,  as  a  measure  of  the  nearness  of  the  ultimate  elements 
of  a  substance  to  each  other,  the  density  of  the  ether  must  be 
greater  than  that  of  any  other  substance.  The  quantity  of  ether 
in  any  given  space  must  be  invariable,  no  matter  how  much  or 
how  little  of  it  is  worked  up  into  molecular  matter,  nor  what 
form  of  matter  it  is  worked  up  into,  so  that  if  quantity  of  sub- 
stance is  what  Professor  Maxwell  means  to  compare,  ether  with 
matter,  instead  of  the  mass  of  ether  within  a  sphere  whose 
radius  is  that  of  the  orbit  of  the  most  distant  planet  being  very 
small  as  compared  with,  the  planets  themselves,  it  is  vastly 
greater  than  would  be  that  of  a  sphere  of  solid  platinum  having 
the  same  radius. 

"It  is  evident  that  the  ether  so  borders  on  the  material 
order  of  being  that  impidses  moving  in  it  with  the  velocity  of 
light  are  capable  of  awakening  a  resistance  in  matter,  but  no 
motion  of  matter  within  the  range  of  velocities  known  among 
material  things  is  hindered  by  it  in  the  slightest  degree.  Pro- 
fessor Clifford  says:  'It  has  been  maintained  for  a  long  time 
that  there  is  a  certain  resisting  medium  which  the  planets  have 
to  move  through,  but  the  evidence  on  which  this  assertion  was 
based  has  been  entirelv  overturned  bv  Professor  Tait.' 


238  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

"Professor  Alexander  Winchell,  too,  in  World  Life,  col- 
lecting a  great  mass  of  evidence  and  reviewing-  the  investiga- 
tions of  many  men  eminent  in  science  regarding  this  matter, 
reaches  the  same  conclusion. 

''Professor  John  Fiske,  too,  says :  'The  resistance  offered 
by  the  ether  to  the  planetary  motions  is  too  minute  to  be  ap- 
preciable ;  it  cannot  be  detected,  is  purely  theoretical  and  is 
based  on  a  fallacious  assumption.'  Of  actions  and  impulses 
moving  in  and  pertaining  to  this  ether,  however.  Professor 
Clifford  says :  'All  we  know  of  the  ether  shows  that  its  actions 
are  of  a  rapidity  very  much  exceeding  anything  that  we  know 
of  the  motions  of  visible  matter.' 

"The  most  of  what  we  know  of  the  ether  we  have  learned 
through  the  study  of  light,  and  conversely,  it  is  mostly  through 
the  behavior  of  light  in  the  presence  of  matter  that  Sir  William 
Thomson  and  others  have  extended  their  researches  so  deeply 
into  the  ultimate  constitution  of  matter.  There  are  other  prop- 
erties or  forces  in  nature,  however,  in  regard  to  which  less  is 
known  than  we  know  of  light,  but  which  so  far  as  they  go  speak 
wonderful  things  of  the  ether. 

"Chief  among  these  is  gravitation.  It  has  long  been  the 
custom  to  speak  of  gravitation  as  if  it  were  an  ultimate  fact 
needing  no  explanation,  but  really  of  the  wonders  of  the  uni- 
verse this  is  one  of  the  chief.  It  has  been  spoken  of  so  generally 
as  if  it  were  an  action  of  one  body  directly  on  another,  that  we 
are  apt  to  overlook  the  necessity  that  all  action  at  a  distance 
must  be  through  a  medium.  Yet,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  who  first 
discovered  and  formulated  the  laws  of  gravitation,  wrote: 
'That  gravity  should  be  innate,  inherent,  and  essential  to 
matter,  so  that  one  body  can  act  upon  another  at  a  distance 
through  a  vacuum,  without  the  mediation  of  anything  else  by 
or  through  which  their  action  and  effort  may  be  conveyed  from 


A  Nezi'  Utopian  Sunday  Lctnrc  239 

one  to  the  other,  is  to  me  so  great  an  absurdity  that  I  believe 
no  man  who  has  in  philosophical  matters  a  competent  faculty  of 
thinking,  can  ever  fall  into  it.'  And  in  this  respect  the  judg- 
ment of  Sir  Isaac  Newton  is  yet  the  judgment  of  the  scientific 
and  philosophical  world. 

"No  tenable  theory  of  the  mode  of  action  of  gravitation  has 
yet  been  formulated.  The  facts  known  in  regard  to  it,  however, 
show  the  instantaneous  transmission  of  its  impulse  through  all 
distances  at  which  its  effects  can  be  detected.  This  requires  an 
absolutely  perfect  incompressibility  of  the  medium  through 
which  its  impulse  is  conveyed. 

"Light  requires  eight  minutes  to  reach  the  earth  from  the 
sun,  its  velocity  being  about  200,000  miles  per  second,  hence 
the  continuity  and  elasticity  of  the  ether,  though  immensely 
greater  than  that  of  any  form  of  ponderable  matter,  might,  so 
far  as  the  light  wave  alone  shows,  be  a  matter  of  degree,  but 
when  this  medium  transmits  an  impulse  ninety-three  millions, 
or  billions  of  miles  in  no  time  at  all,  then  degree  cannot  be  ad- 
mitted regarding  its  density  ,  continuity,  and  other  related 
qualities  on  which  this  transmission  depends. 

"Gravitation,  light,  radiant  heat,  and  electro-magnetic 
phenomena,  all  require  this  space  filling  medium  for  their  trans- 
mission. The  qualities  of  this  medium,  which  can  be  reasoned 
back  to  from  the  facts,  differ  somewhat,  according  to  the  class 
of  phenomena  we  use  as  a  basis  for  our  reasoning. 

"Whether  all  are  transmitted  directly  by  the  'primitive 
fluid'  or  by  dififerent  modifications  of  it  in  the  same  sense  as 
molecular  matter,  is  a  modification  of  it,  but  prevailing  as  uni- 
versally as  the  ether  itself,  the  science  of  the  day  is  not  able  to 
tell  us,  but  some  of  the  facts  ascertained  suggest  that  the  latter 
may  be  nearer  the  ultimate  truth. 


240  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

"The  object  of  this  discussion  is,  however,  to  enable  us  to 
obtain  a  better  view,  and  at  the  same  time  a  thoroughly 
scientific  view,  of  the  difference  between  the  range  of  our 
powers  of  perception  through  our  senses  and  the  range  of  real 
existence. 

"We  have  seen  that  before  the  closest  scrutiny  of  physical 
science  the  solid  rock,  the  hardest  steel,  the  earth,  our  own 
bodies,  and  all  the  material  universe,  dissolve  into  a  cloud  of 
dancing  whirl  puffs  of  a  substance  which  itself,  though  every- 
where present,  eludes  every  effort  of  ours  to  perceive  it.  They 
are  a  cloud  less  substantial  when  compared  with  that  etherial 
mass  than  is  the  morning  mist  to  our  physical  constitutions. 

"This  we  know  is  a  hard  concept  to  accept  while  it  is  new 
to  one,  yet  it  is  the  outcome  of  the  closest  study  into  the  nature 
of  things  that  man  has  ever  been  able  to  make.  And  it  will 
grow  on  the  one  who  studies  it.  As  we  come  to  understand 
how  these  things  can  be,  consistently  with  the  existence  of  the 
solid  seeming  earth,  and  all  that  we  are  conscious  of,  we  also 
come  to  perceive  the  probability  of  their  truth. 

"When  we  have  taken  in  and  digested  this  concept  of  the 
material  universe  it  is  no  longer  hard  for  us  to  understand  the 
possibilities  of  the  existence  of  other  orders  of  being  so  differ- 
ent from  the  material  that,  to  our  cloudbank  organizations  with 
our  foggy  senses,  they  may  be  as  imperceptible  as  the  ether 
itself,  and  that  they  may  nevertheless  be  organized  in  a  manner 
far  more  perfect  than  is  possible  in  the  matter  which  we  can 
perceive. 

"Indeed,  when  we  consider  that  every  quality  of  the  ether 
which  we  have  been  able  to  discover  excels  the  corresponding 
quality  of  material  substances  in  a  degree  immense  beyond  our 
power  of  comprehension,  it  seems  quite  possible  that  an  order 


A  New  Utopian  Sunday  Lecture.  241 

of  bein^  may  exist  which  may  excel  the  material  in  variety, 
power,  and  perfection,  in  a  like  degree. 

"Nor  do  we  stand  alone  in  this  concept.  Professor  Fiske, 
in  The  Unseen  World,  quotes  Professor  Jevons  as  follows : 
'All  our  ordinary  notions  must  be  laid  aside  in  contemplating 
such  an  hypothesis,  yet  it  is  no  more  than  the  observed  pheno- 
mena of  light  and  heat  force  us  to  accept.  We  cannot  deny 
even  the  strange  suggestion  of  Dr.  Young  that  there  may  be 
independent  worlds,  some  possibly  existing  in  different  parts  of 
space,  but  others  perhaps  pervading  each  other,  unseen  and 
unknown  to  each  other,  in  the  same  space.'  And  this  Dr. 
Young,  it  should  be  noted,  is  that  professor  to  professors  whose 
work  is  usually  filtered  down  to  ordinary  thinkers  only  at 
second  hand,  but  whose  research  and  reasoning  it  was  that 
finally  fixed  the  wave  theory  of  light  in  the  realm  of  established 
and  final  truth. 

"It  is  then  with  no  lack,  either  of  scientific  grounds  for  the 
conclusion,  or  of  high  authority  among  scientific  thinkers,  that 
we  claim  a  scientific  place  for  another  order  of  being  im- 
perceptible to  our  physical  senses  as  an  established  scientific 
truth.  Yet,  having  found  a  scientific  place  for  such  an  order  of 
being,  and  perceived  the  possibility  of  its  existence  as  a  factor 
of  the  great  universe  of  being,  to  assume  the  existence  of  such 
an  order  of  being  proved  thereby  would  be  very  far  from  being 
a  scientific  proceeding.  The  proof  of  the  existence  of  such  an 
order  of  being  lies  along  other  lines  of  research,  in  the  investi- 
gation of  the  phenomena  of  life  and  intelligence,  in  which  field 
those  who  are  familiar  with  the  evidence  regard  the  existence 
of  such  another  order  of  being  as  already  proved  in  a  manner 
as  scientific  as  that  by  which  the  existence  of  the  ether  is 
demonstrated.     And  in  regard  to  this,  science,  even  material- 


242  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

istic  science,  is  now  self-estopped  from  denying  it  a  priori  as  it 
has  been  wont  to  do.* 

"This  review  and  philosophical  essay  illustrate  as  well  as 
anything  within  its  compass  the  battle  between  religion  and 
philosophy,  or  between  materialism  and  spiritualism,  in  which 
materialism,  and  with  it  religion  in  its  historic  sense,  was  finally 
overthrown. 

"Some  may  wonder  why  it  was  that  the  vanquished  sophist 
rather  than  the  victorious  philosopher  was  famous,  known  and 
read  and  talked  of  by  the  world.  '  'Twas  ever  thus !  He  is 
regarded  knave  or  fool  or  zealot  plotting  crime,  who  for  the 
advancement  of  his  kind  is  wiser  than  his  time.' 

"It  is  also  true  that  the  last  effective  power  of  the  churches 
was  their  ability  to  advertise  into  the  world's  notice,  and  secure 
a  large  reading  for,  any  book  which  pleased  them,  or  by  a 
conspiracy  of  silence  to  condemn  to  obscurity  many  of  such  as 
they  desired  should  remain  unread.  Kidd's  Social  Evolution 
was  a  novel  defense  of  their  principle  of  unreason,  and  the 
priesthood  of  his  epoch  were  not  acute  enough  to  see  that  it 
was  more  destructive  to  those  it  defended  than  it  could  possibly 
be  to  those  it  attacked." 

This  ended  the  lecture.  The  sweet  zephyrs  of  the  Pacific, 
bearing  with  them  the  odors  of  many  flowers,  rarified  and 
cooled  as  they  had  floated  up  the  mountain  side,  had  fanned 
the  brows  of  the  audience  while  they  listened  all  through  this 
rather  heavy  and  lengthy  lecture. 

None  but  a  trained  audience  could  have  listened  to  it  with- 
out weariness,  but  every  New  Utopian  audience  is  a  trained 
one. 


*For  an  essay  in  this  field  of  phychological    research,     see     "The     Missing 
Sense,"   by  the  present  author. 


A  New  Utopian  Sunday  Lecture.  243 

As  they  passed  out  into  the  lovely  vistas  and  beautiful 
homes  of  this  fair  city,  they  felt  that  the  inner  truths  of  a  bygone 
epoch  had  been  opened  to  their  understanding,  and  their  minds 
had  been  fed.  And  the  midday  melody  from  the  great  organs 
in  every  tower  floated  over  and  permeated  every  copse  and 
cranney  in  all  this  great  and  beautiful  city  as  they  departed. 


244  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Eighteen  years  have  passed  since  the  memorable  summer 
when  the  army  was  disbanded  and  General  Goodwill  delivered 
his  noble  valedictory  at  the  great  celebration  of  the  Fourth  of 
July  in  the  mountains  above  New  Utopia. 

During  these  years  whatever  remained  of  the  ancient 
regime  has  passed  awa)\  The  Co-operative  Commonwealth  is 
perfected.  Every  town  in  all  the  land  has  its  public  industries 
now,  producing  all  needed  supplies,  its  public  stores,  where  all 
things  needed  are  kept  in  store  and  from  which  they  are  distri- 
buted to  those  who  desire  them,  its  public  services,  by  which 
all  needful  services  are  rendered  with  the  greatest  efificiency  and 
economy  possible ;  and  invention  has  been  very  fertile  in  this 
field  during  these  years. 

There  is  no  longer  any  town,  nor  any  home,  in  all  the  land, 
that  is  shabby  or  unsightly,  nor  any  human  being  in  poverty 
nor  in  danger  of  poverty. 

There  are  no  lonely  farm  houses  now.  The  fields  every- 
where are  cultivated  under  power,  on  the  system  first  intro- 
duced on  the  irrigated  lands  about  Fort  Goodwill ;  and  the 
people  everywhere,  in  order  to  have  the  benefits  of  association, 
the  public  services,  the  leisure,  the  society,  the  lectures  and  the 
schools,  have  moved  into  the  towns. 

Forests  and  groves  are  everywhere  cared  for  under  public 
charge.  The  wliole4a^tdHs-4ik#-aUandscage_garden.  Electric 
railways,  deriving  their  power  from  liquid  air  power  stations, 
thread  the  country  in  all  directions,  while  paved  parkways, 
along  which    the    swift    motor    carriages    course,    thread    the 


Present  Conditions — 194/  A.  D.  245 

groves,  and  meander  alon^  the  river  banks,  and  stretch  across 
the  fields. 

The  horse  is  everywhere  Hmited  to  the  uses  that  were 
found  for  him  at  Fort  Goodwill  thirty  odd  years  a^^o.     Except « 
for  sports  and  exercises  he  would  be  as  rare  as  the  elephant 
in  the  land. 

There  were  some  towns  whose  leading  citizens  thought 
they  would  be  conservative  and  use  the  power,  which  wealth 
and  property  gave  them,  to  retain  there  the  ancient  order.  But 
in  order  to  enjoy  the  new,  the  people  of  these  towns  left  them, 
and  their  wealthy  citizens  were  compelled  to  relinquish  their 
purpose  and  accept  the  new  order  also,  or  their  towns  would 
quickly  have  ceased  to  exist. 

The  rich  are  no  longer  distinguishable.  The  ancient 
money  is  received  yet  in  the  public  stores,  and  when  received 
it  is  destroyed,  excepting  that  an  assortment  of  it  is  kept  in  the 
museums  attached  to  every  school.  Since  the  public  industries 
and  public  stores  were  established,  the  only  money  issued  has 
been  the  time  check  for  services  and  the  certificate  of  deposit 
for  goods  received  in  the  stores. 

But  though  the  rich  man's  money  will  buy  goods,  more 
than  ever  of  them,  there  are  no  longer  any  people  that  he  can 
hire.  He  can  get  no  services  but  the  public  services,  and  there 
are  none  but  can  have  these  as  well  as  he.  Hence  the  millions 
of  the  millionaire  are  as  useless  and  unmeaning  as  they  would 
have  been  to  Robinson  Crusoe  or  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
where  it  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  pass  through  the  eye  of  a  needle 
than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter.  The  rich  man  has  entered  here 
and  no  man  has  robbed  him,  but  his  riches  have  lost  their 
power  and  he  is  no  richer  than  the  rest. 

We  have  found  our  place  and  played  our  part  in  the  east 
during  the  time  of  these  transformations,  but  the  desire  has 


^ 


246  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

come  upon  us  again  to  visit  New  Utopia,  and  what  were  the 
arid  lands,  and  we  are  now  on  the  journey. 

We  are  traveHng  by  the  southern  route ;  where  we  are  now 
the  desert  used  to  burn  with  its  fiercest  heat  and  no  green  thing 
could  live,  but  we  are  flitting  along  through  orange  groves, 
and  past  plantations  of  bananas,  and  gardens  of  pineapples. 
The  fragrant  guavas  grow  on  the  clustered  shrubbery  at  the 
foot  of  yonder  cliff,  and  the  pomegranate,  more  valued  for  its 
splendid  flowers,  deep  cups  like  tulips,  of  orange  blended  into 
scarlet  and  crimson,  than  for  its  fruit,  for  many  better  kinds 
have  been  developed  since  the  days  when  the  pomegranate  was 
a  favorite.  Limes,  lemons  and  figs,  too,  and  almost  every  kind 
of  tropical  and  subtropical  fruit,  find  their  place  in  these 
gardens. 

Now  the  sparkling  waters  of  Lake  Diaz  shine  through  the 
glossy  green  of  the  orange  groves  and  among  the  feathery 
plumes  of  the  cocoanut  palms ;  and  now  the  eye  sweeps  broadly 
over  its  surface  with  its  hundreds  of  white  sailed  yachts. 

These  waters  are  now  swarming  with  fish,  and  the  shallows 
are  thick  bedded  with  the  choicest  oysters.  The  grey  pelicans 
promenade  along  the  shores  in  regiments  and  brigades,  pick- 
ing up  any  stray  mollusk  that  may  have  drifted  to  the  beach, 
while  they  vary  this  occupation  with  flights  over  the  water  in 
order  to  carry  on  their  more  active  fisheries. 

Bathing  beaches  and  picnic  groves  here  and  there  along 
the  margin  invite  the  passerby  to  pause  and  enjoy  the 
pleasures  of  the  scene.  The  mountains  to  the  westward,  with 
their  shady  sides  toward  us,  as  of  old,  rise  dark  against  the  sky. 
The  sunlit  faces  of  the  nearer  cliffs  and  rocks  on  our  right  glow 
red  and  brown  and  slate  colored  and  grey  among  the  groves 
that  cluster  in  their  valleys  and  gorges. 


Present  Conditions — 7947  A.  D.  247 

The  great  girdling  canal  that  carries  the  waters  of  the 
glacier  around  to  irrigate  the  plain  that  used  to  be  the  Mohave 
desert,  is  yonder  above  and  beyond  those  crags,  and  it  spares 
on  its  way  water  enough  to  keep  all  these  gardens  flourishing 
as  we  see  them. 

In  the  farther  distance  the  mountains  are  clothed  in  the 
same  rich  lilacs  and  purples  as  of  old,  in  varying  tints  which 
must  delight  the  eye  forever. 

And  now  far  up  on  our  right  and  before  us  we  catch 
glimpses  of  the  great  glacier  of  the  San  Bernardino,  shimmer- 
ing white  through  the  leaves  as  we  flit  along  through  the 
orange  groves.  And  now,  as  we  run  out  into  the  alfalfa 
meadows  and  forage  fields  that  furnish  food  for  the  cows  in  the 
dairy  of  New  Utopia,  it  spreads  in  all  its  dazzling  brilliancy 
before  our  eyes. 

Suddenly  our  neighbor  across  the  aisle,  who  has  been  in- 
tently watching  the  landscape  on  the  left  of  our  course,  utters 
an  exclamation.  "In  the  name  of  all  that's  enormous  !  What's 
that?"  Turning  in  the  direction  which  he  indicates  we  see 
swelling  out  from  behind  the  nearer  peak  what  seems  to  be 
a  great  spherical  bubble,  itself  of  mountain  size,  resting  on  a 
building  of  noble  architecture  as  a  base.  "That,"  remarks  the 
conductor,  "is  a  school  house." 

As  we  draw  nearer,  the  eye  quickly  recognizes  on  the  sur- 
face of  this  enormous  sphere  the  familiar  outlines  of  the  con- 
tinents of  the  terrestrial  globe.  But  now  our  train  draws  near 
the  southeastern  foot  of  the  great  flue,  and  the  trellised  towers 
and  the  glassy  luster  of  its  side  are  seen  towering  like  a  moun- 
tain wall  high  on  our  right. 

Our  road  curves  toward  the  left,  and  now  we  cross  the 
canyon  of  the  San  Jacinto  river  and  are  coursing  along  by  the 
groves  and  lawns  that  clothe  the  slopes  that  border  the  plateau 


y 


248  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

on  which  New  Utopia  is  built,  where  here  and  there  can  be 
seen  through  openings  among  the  trees,  ghmpses  of  white 
colonnades  and  stately  towers  in  the  city  above,  while  the 
mountain  background  towers  darkly  behind  and  the  great 
sphere  that  arrested  our  attention  some  twenty  miles  back,  now 
somewhat  behind  us,  swells  grandly  over  all. 

And  now  our  train  pauses  under  the  arches  that  rest  on  the 
long  colonnades  of  the  New  Utopia  station.  We  step  out,  and 
taking  seats  in  an  automobile  omnibus  are  rapidly  whirled 
along  the  curving  avenues  among  the  lawns  and  the  groves,  the 
noble  palaces  and  the  dainty  cottages,  and  all  the  beauties  of 
New  Utopia. 

Just  as  we  reach  our  hotel,  one  of  the  palatial  apartment 
blocks  that  have  been  described,  near  the  center  of  the  city,  the 
evening  melody  floats  over  and  through  it  all,  and  the  parting 
sunlight  tips  the  great  glacier  of  the  San  Bernardino,  yonder 
in  the  northeast,  with  the  whitest  of  fire.  We  are  warmly  wel- 
comed, and  as  we  are  conducted  to  the  apartments  that  are  to 
be  our  home,  on  our  veteran's  right  without  expense,  so  long 
as  we  wish  to  remain  in  New  Utopia,  the  peace  and  beauty  of 
the  surroundings  pervades  us  and  fills  us  with  a  most  serene 
satisfaction. 

Since  our  former  acquaintance  with  these  scenes  New 
Utopia  has  spread  more  widely  over  its  plateau,  but  the  great- 
est change  apparent  to  the  eye  comes  from  eighteen  years  of 
added  growth  to  the  trees.  This  change  is  a  most  satisfactory 
one ;  it  corrects  the  one  defect  that  art  without  the  help  of  time 
could  not  remedy,  and  gives  to  the  scene  the  only  charm  it 
lacked. 

In  the  course  of  the  city's  growth  many  notable  buildings 
have  been  added,  and  the  artistic  effort  to  perfect  them  all  in 
beauty  and  to  make  every  part  of  the  city  perfect  in  the  har- 


Present  Conditions — /p^/  A.  D.  249 

mony  of  each  part  with  its  surroundings,  and  with  the  whole 
has  been  faithfully  persisted  in,  but  so  far  as  any  description 
could  go,  It  ,s  like  adding  more  trees  to  a  forest  or  new  flowers 
to  a  garden. 

One  building  that  has  been  erected  and  completed  since 
our  former  acquaintance  here,  is  the  great  hall  at  the  city 
center.  This  from  its  position  and  purpose  was  necessarily 
made  the  noblest  building  in  the  city,  with  every  architectural 
feature  wrought  to  the  utmost  perfection,  and  it  is  the  largest 
buildmg  of  all,  except  the  great  one  on  the  hill,  on  which  rests 
yonder  all  dominating  sphere. 


250  Perfecting  the  Earth. 


CHAPTER  XXVni. 

That  great  building-  on  the  hill  yonder  is  worthy  of  our 
special  attention.  It  is  the  outcome  of  one  of  the  suggestions 
^^j^'^Topped  in  the  box  for  the  people's  forum  a  few  years  ago;  an 
idea  that  so  pleased  the  people  that,  great  as  was  the  work  in- 
volved, it  went  through  the  mill  without  a  check,  was  finally 
adopted,  and  there  it  stands  in  its  greatness,  unique  in  all  the 
earth. 

As  a  suitable  site  for  this  building  the  New  Utopians 
leveled  down  the  top  of  a  knob  of  a  mountain  that  formed  the 
northernmost  summit  of  the  San  Jacinto  group  adjacent  to 
New  Utopia,  rising  from  just  above  the  3,000  feet  contour  line 
that  forms  the  mountain  border  of  the  city,  and,  on  the  south- 
ward or  city  side  of  the  canyon  of  the  San  Jacinto  river.  The 
original  elevation  of  this  knob  was  a  little  less  than  1,000  feet 
above  its  base  at  the  city  border,  and,  by  cutting  it  down  350 
feet  a  plane  of  rock  was  formed  on  which  to  found  the  building, 
the  shortest  diameter  of  which  was  a  little  more  than  half  a 
mile,  and  its  height  above  the  city  border  640  feet. 

The  material  removed  from  the  top  of  the  knob,  deposited 
above  a  properly  constructed  dam  face  of  stone,  served  to  fill 
the  canyon  of  the  San  Jacinto  river  in  a  very  substantial  manner 
and  so  formed  a  much  larger  reservoir  than  any  of  those  origi- 
nally constructed  in  the  mountains,  which  constitutes  a  very 
valuable  addition  to  the  city's  available  supply  of  water. 

This  building  is  fitted  to  the  dome  rather  than  the  dome 
to  the  building,  and  therefore  the  dome  claims  our  first  atten- 
tion. This  dome  is  a  terrestrial  globe,  on  the  scale  as  exact  as 
science  and  art  can  make  it  of  one  in  twenty  thousand,  treating 
the  earth  as  a  true  sphere  on  the  equatorial  radius. 


A  Nczv  Utopian  Schoolhonsc. 


251 


A  New  Utopian  Schoolhouse.  253 

This  building  is,  of  course,  framed  of  steel,  every  part  be- 
ing copper  plated  and  finished  as  were  the  towers  in  the  great 
flue.  The  sphere  is  the  simplest,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
strongest  figure  possible.  It  is  also  an  accepted  fact  that  of  all 
simple  figures  it  is  the  most  beautiful. 

A  segment,  subtended  by  70  degrees  of  the  great  circle 
only,  is  submerged  in  the  supporting  base  of  this  globe,  which 
is  cut  out  and  the  margin  rests  on  a  great  ring  of  steel  in  the 
flat  roof  of  the  supporting  building.  This  ring  rests  on  a  circle 
of  36  massive  supports  of  steel,  which  enter  into  the  frame- 
work of  the  building.  Each  of  these  supports  consists  of  two 
massively  built  columns,  inclined  toward  each  other  and  meet- 
ing at  the  top,  where  they  unite  in  a  saddle  of  steel  on  which 
the  basal  ring  of  the  great  dome  rests.  These  supports  are 
placed  radially  at  intervals  of  10  degrees  of  the  circle  about  the 
center  of  the  building,  their  columns  forming  a  double  circle  on 
each  of  its  two  main  floors.  The  diameter  of  the  circle  above,  at 
the  center  of  support  in  the  steel  saddles  on  which  the  great 
dome  rests,  is  875  feet.  The  basal  building  is  hexagonal,  in  two 
stories,  of  which  the  second  story  stands  back  within  the  border 
of  the  first,  a  distance  of  75  feet.  The  front  of  each  face  of  the 
hexagon  in  each  story  is  a  colonnade  of  Ionic  columns,  with  all 
the  related  parts  proportioned  according  to  the  rules  of  classic 
architecture. 

The  portals  are  at  the  angles,  each  of  them  surmounted  by 
a  figure  gracefully  sculptured  in  collossal  proportions.  The 
lower  and  outer  story  is  200  feet  high,  and  each  of  its  six  faces, 
measured  along  the  line  of  the  columns,  is  1,100  feet  in  length. 
Hence,  of  course,  the  diameter  of  the  building  from  corner  to 
corner  through  the  center  is  2,200  feet. 

The  top  of  this  lower  story,  about  the  borders  of  the  build- 
ing, is  an  open  promenade  75  feet  wide,  upon  which  the  floor 


254  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

of  the  second  story  opens.  This  ceihng  of  the  first  story  and 
floor  of  the  second  is  supported  on  steel  columns  placed  hexa- 
gonally,  in  accordance  with  the  general  plan  of  the  building, 
and  50  feet  apart.  Each  of  these  columns  throws  out  branches 
at  50  feet  from  the  top,  which  meet  the  similar  branches  from 
the  neighboring  columns  at  the  ceiling,  thus  forming  gothic 
trussed  arches  of  steel  to  support  the  floor  of  the  second  story. 
The  upper  story  is  150  feet  high.  The  structure  of  its  frame 
within  is  similar  to  that  below,  excepting  that  the  great  space 
within  the  supporting  ring  of  the  great  dome,  850  feet  wide 
in  the  clear,  is  left  open  to  the  top  of  the  great  dome. 

Under  each  of  the  six  angles  of  this  upper  story  there  are 
elevator  shafts  leading  from  the  ground  floor  to  the  roof  above. 
The  frame  work  of  the  dome  itself  consists  primarily  of  36  meri- 
dional segments,  placed  10  degrees  apart  over  the  main  sup- 
ports below.  These  meridional  frames  consist  of  an  external 
and  an  internal  rim  of  steel,  each  of  the  same  curvature,  namely 
circular,  on  a  radius  of  796  feet  minus  the  thickness  of  the  sur- 
face work  ;  that  being  the  twenty  thousandth  part  of  the  earth's 
equatorial  radius.  The  center  of  the  internal  rim  is  placed  100 
feet  back  and  dropped  five  feet  below  that  of  the  external  one 
which  supports  the  surface  of  the  globe.  This  causes  the  two 
rims  to  diverge  to  the  distance  of  100  feet  from  each  other  in 
their  central  portion,  while  at  the  vertex,  where  the  several 
segments  meet,  they  approach  quite  near  together  ;  the  portions 
of  the  circles  which  approach  and  would  interfere  with  each 
other  below,  are  cut  away  in  the  opening  at  the  base. 

The  space  between  these  rims  is  braced  and  framed  with 
steel  in  such  a  manner  as  not  only  to  give  the  strength  required 
to  support  the  dome,  but  also  to  support  a  floor  winding  about 
the  inside  of  the  dome  spirally,  and  rising  25  feet  in  each  circle. 


A  New  Utopian  Schoolhouse. 


255 


•Plan  &3£Ct/on  or  FkAf^Ei^yoRH^ 


A  New  Utopian  Schoolhouse.  257 

These  meridional  frames  are  braced  together  on  the  inner 
surface  by  plates  like  those  of  a  ship,  and  on  the  outer  surface 
with  steel  sashwork  on  the  same  curvature  as  the  rims.  The 
supports  of  the  spiral  floor  serve,  too,  greatly  to  strengthen 
the  structure,  that  floor  being  of  tile  supported  on  steel.  The 
whole  is  surmounted  by  an  observatory  75  feet  in  diameter  and 
150  feet  high,  consisting  of  a  dome  supported  on  columns. 

The  external  surface  of  this  great  globe  is  a  map  of  the 
world  in  glazed  tiling  on  the  scale  of  one  to  twenty  thousand 
of  nature,  which  is  3.188  inches  to  the  mile.  This  permits  a 
very  great  degree  of  detail,  and  it  is  desired  that  every  tile  shall 
be  a  model  of  the  part  of  the  earth's  surface  which  it  represents, 
as  perfect  in  form  and  coloring  as  it  is  possible  to  make  it. 

Every  nation  has  been  invited  to  contribute  to  the  surface  t'L 
of  this  globe  the  map  of  its  own  territory.  This  invitation 
many  of  the  most  advanced  nations  have  accepted  in  whole  or 
in  part.  Where  these  tiles  are  not  furnished  they  are  made 
here  with  such  degree  of  detail  as  is  possible.  Whenever  any 
locality  desiring  to  be  honored  with  fine  work  on  this  model  of 
the  earth,  furnishes  a  more  perfect  piece  of  workmanship  than 
that  already  in  place,  the  original  is  removed  and  the  finer  work 
substituted.  When  any  locality  prepares  to  furnish  a  tile  or 
tiles  for  this  purpose,  very  precise  information  in  regard  to 
where  the  lines  of  division  between  the  tiles  fall,  is,  of  course, 
given  to  those  preparing  to  furnish  them,  as  also  a  fac-simile 
of  the  shades  of  coloring  used  on  the  bordering  parts  of  the 
map.  Each  tile  corresponds  to  10  minutes  of  longitude  and  10  r 
of  latitude. 

These  tiles  are  grooved  along  their  edges,  and  fasten  to  the 
framework  of  the  globe  by  a  system  of  sliding  bars  and  wedges 
worked  from  the  inside,  a  thin  layer  of  cement  being  also  placed 
on  their  adjoining  edges.    There  is  a  system  of  steel  stanchions. 


258  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

also,  rising'  through  this  tile  map,  to  support  a  steel  cable 
track  on  which  observation  cars  run  outside  the  globe.  The 
structural  meridians  of  steel  in  the  frame  of  this  globe  have  no 
relation  but  an  accidental  one  to  the  earth  meridians  in  the 
map.  These  are  so  placed  that  the  geographical  axis  of  the 
globe  is  with  great  exactness  parallel  to  the  axis  of  the  earth  in 
space. 

The  observatory  on  the  top  rests  over  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  its  center  being  located  in  latitude  33  degrees  and  40 
minutes  north,  and  longitude  18  degrees  east.  The  missing 
part  below  has  its  center  at  the  antipodes,  33  degrees  and  40 
minutes  south  latitude,  and  longitude  162  west.  Sweeping  a 
circle  about  this  center  on  a  terrestrial  globe  with  a  radius  of  35 
degrees,  anyone  can  see  at  a  glance  what  is  cut  out.  The  miss- 
ing portion  includes  New  Zealand,  Samoa,  the  Fejee  Islands 
and  a  few  others.  Australia  comes  very  near  the  edge  of  the 
map,  without,  however,  being  mutilated.  As  a  compensation 
for  this  omission  a  map  of  New  Zealand,  on  the  same  scale  and 
curvature  and  mode  of  workmanship  as  the  general  surface  of 
the  great  globe,  is  exhibited  in  the  hall  beneath. 

Water  is  represented  on  this  globe  by  tiles  of  wavy  trans- 
lucent glass.  The  polar  regions  and  glacier  surfaces  are 
modeled  in  white  porcelain.  Early  summer  in  the  northern 
hemisphere  is  chosen  as  the  season  to  guide  the  coloring. 

Passing  into  this  building  through  the  grand  portal  at 
either  of  its  six  angles,  we  first  enter  the  great  hexagonal  hall 
on  the  ground  floor,  more  than  one-third  of  a  mile  in  diameter. 
Its  central  parts  are  brilliantly  lighted  day  and  night  by  electric 
lights ;  the  great  windows,  150  feet  high,  that  fill  the  walls,  ren- 
der artificial  light  superfluous  by  day  for  a  long  distance  from 
the  margin. 


A  New  Utopian  Schoolhouse.  259 

Conspicuous  among  the  forest  of  slender  columns  that 
support  the  ceiling,  toward  the  center  of  the  hall,  is  the  double 
circle  of  massive  trussed  columns  of  steel,  all  plated  and 
burnished  with  copper  in  every  part,  and  each  radial  pair  in  the 
circle  leaning  gently  toward  each  other,  which  are  all  that  can 
be  seen  in  this  hall  of  the  main  supports  of  the  great  dome. 

In  this  hall  there  is  an  immense  and  comprehensive 
museum  of  nature  and  art,  e(juivalent  to  one  of  the  greater 
world's  fairs  of  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  but  vastly 
more  satisfactory  to  the  mind  because  here  everj'thing  is  ar- 
ranged in  such  order  as  to  show  its  evolution  from  primordial 
beginnings  in  nature,  and  from  primitive  simplicity,  or  in  some 
cases  complexity,  in  art.  The  commercialism  and  desire  to  ad- 
vertise, which  furnished  the  prime  motive  of  the  world's  fairs,  |^^ 
being  absent  here,  repetitions  are  avoided  and  order  and  system 
is  made  possible,  as  under  the  commercial  system  it  was  not 
possible. 

This  is  a  comprehensive  use  for  this  hall,  and  one  that  re-  i  J 
quires  a  large  space,  yet  the  greater  part  of  the  hall  is  un- 
occupied ;  it  doesn't  trouble  the  New  Utopians,  however,  that 
space  remains  yet  unused,  to  stimulate  the  genius  of  the  future 
for  a  long  time  yet  to  come  in  finding  objects  of  interest  to 
place  here.  To  have  such  a  room  in  waiting  to  receive  such 
objects  is  in  itself  a  good  thing. 

Taking  an  elevator,  or  mounting  either  of  the  six  grand 
stairways  if  we  chose,  and  ascending  to  the  second  floor,  we 
are  in  the  hall  of  the  sun.  The  height  of  this  hall  varies.  The 
central  part  within  the  supporting  circle  of  the  great  dome,  a 
space  850  feet  wide,  has  the  top  of  that  dome  for  its  ceiling, 
making  the  height  of  this  part  of  the  hall  about  1,600  feet ;  from 
the  edge  of  this  opening  to  100  feet  from  the  margin  of  the  hall 
the  flat  roof  of  the  building  is  its  ceiling,  supported  on  steel 


V 


260  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

columns  similar  to  those  in  the  great  hall  below,  and  the  height 
of  this  portion  of  the  hall  is  150  feet.  All  around  the  margin 
of  this  hall,  to  the  width  of  100  feet,  the  upper  hundred  feet  of 
its  height  is  cut  out  for  a  gallery,  leaving  the  height  of  the  hall 
beneath  the  gallery  only  50  feet.  This  gallery  is  not,  however, 
open  to  the  general  hall,  but  is  entirely  walled  of¥  as  a  separate 
chamber. 

The  circle  of  main  supports  for  the  great  dome,  which  in 
the  hall  of  industry  below  appears  as  a  double  circle  of  great 
columns  in  pairs,  placed  on  radial  lines  from  the  center  of  the 
hall  and  inclining  toward  each  other,  in  this  hall  of  the  sun  is 
seen  as  a  similar  double  circle  of  massive  columns  meeting  each 
other  in  the  rim  of  the  great  dome.  This  circle  creates  a 
marked  distinction  to  the  eye  between  that  part  of  the  hall  ly- 
ing without  the  circle,  which  is  studded  with  columns  like  the 
hall  of  industry  below,  and  the  part  within  where  the  space  is 
open  upward  into  immensity.     • 

Why  this  is  called  the  hall  of  the  sun  is  evident  at  a  glance, 
for  in  its  center,  lifted  just  clear  of  a  low  rim  of  moulding  that 
surrounds  it  at  a  little  distance  on  the  floor,  is  a  great,  brilliant 
golden  sphere.  This  is  142  feet  in  diameter,  it  is  gilded  with 
crystalized  gold,  but  one  wonders  by  what  art  it  is  made  to 
shine  with  such  exceeding  brilliancy,  until  we  discover  that  it 
is  in  the  focus  of  a  double  circle  of  powerful  searchlights,  one 
circle  of  such,  36  in  number,  being  contained  in  the  cornice 
about  the  opening  of  the  great  dome,  and  the  other  within  the 
rim  of  the  circle  that  surrounds  this  sphere  on  the  floor.  These 
lights  each  being  placed  in  the  focus  of  a  deep  parabolic  re- 
flector, the  axis  of  which  is  directed  toward  the  center  of  the 
golden  sphere,  and  which  reflectors  are  themselves  set  deep  in 
the  mouldings  of  the  cornice  of  the  upper  and  lower  circles, 
can  not  be  seen  unless  one  gets  between  them  and  the  model 


A  New  Utopian  Schoolhouse.  261 

sun,  which  is  not  a  convenient  place  to  get.  This  makes  a  very 
pretty  method  of  illuminating  this  great  hall ;  and  the  model 
sun  being  directly  under  the  center  of  the  great  dome  above, 
very  effectively  assists  in  illuminating  its  vault  also. 

Ranged  about  this  central  sun  are  other  globes  mounted 
on  orbits  of  encircling  steel  rods,  supported  on  slender  davits 
rising  from  the  floor.  These  globes  represent  the  planets,  each 
in  its  proper  relative  position  with  regard  to  the  sun  and  the 
other  planets  at  any  given  time.  These  orbits  are  so  con- 
structed that  their  ellipticity  shall  be  true  to  nature,  and  the 
direction  of  each  planet's  axis,  with  reference  to  the  plane  of  its 
orbit,  is  true  to  nature,  also.  The  motions  of  each  planet  in  its 
orbit  and  on  its  axis,  and  the  satellites  with  their  motions  and 
relative  positions,  are  copied  true  to  nature  also,  their  motions 
being  governed  by  fine  clockwork  adapted  to  the  purpose. 

The  scale  of  magnitudes  chosen  for  the  dimensions  of 
these  models  of  the  planets  is  500  miles  to  the  inch,  and  the 
same  scale  applies  to  the  model  of  the  sun,  making  each  planet 
of  its  proper  relative  size.  The  scale  of  distances  is  a  con- 
venient sliding  scale ;  nothing  less  than  space  itself  could  ac- 
commodate such  an  orrery  as  this  if  the  same  scale  were  ob- 
served in  distances  as  for  the  dimensions  of  the  planets,  and 
then  the  original  of  nature  would  be  infinitely  superior  to  the 
model  for  purposes  of  observation. 

The  earth  on  this  scale  is  a  globe  about  16  inches  in  dia- 
meter. Mounted  on  its  orbit  in  the  plane  of  the  sun's  center, 
it  is  74  feet  above  the  floor,  and  a  moving  platform  is  provided 
from  which  to  observe  it.  Its  axis  is  in  true  relation  to  the 
plane  of  its  orbit,  that  is  inclined  23^  degrees,  and  the  clock- 
work with  which  it  is  ingeniously  connected  through  its  mount- 
ing causes  it  to  move  exactly  as  the  earth  itself  moves.  It  is 
mounted  in  a  thin  transparent  hemispherical  shell  darkened  to 


262  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

represent  the  night  and  fixed  on  the  side  opposite  the  sun,  in 
which  the  globe  turns  on  its  axis  while  the  shell  remains  un- 
moved. The  map  can  be  seen  through  this  shell  as  if  it  were 
shaded  with  India  ink,  but  at  the  edges  it  clears  up  into  pure 
transparency,  representing  the  twilight.  Fixed  with  this  shell 
are  slender  metallic  meridians  15  degrees  apart,  marking  the 
hours  of  the  day,  and  these  hour  meridians  are  continued  across 
the  darkened  shell,  marking  the  hours  of  the  night  also.  By 
this  device  the  hour  of  the  day  or  night  at  any  moment  at  any 
part  of  the  earth  can  be  seen  at  a  glance.  The  month  and 
day  of  the  year  also  are  marked  on  the  orbit,  and  attached  to 
the  mechanism,  at  a  little  distance  above,  is  a  circle  to  a  point 
on  which  the  pole  of  the  earth  is  directed  and  which  marks  the 
movement  of  the  earth's  axis  in  the  precession  of  the  equi- 
noxes ;  along  this  circle*  are  graduations  marking  the  intervals 
of  10,  100  and  1,000  years,  the  numbers  corresponding  with  the 
era  of  our  calendar.  Thus,  on  this  globe  the  hour  of  the  day  for 
any  place,  the  day  of  the  month,  the  month  of  the  year,  and  the 
year  of  the  era,  can  all  be  read  at  any  moment. 

The  moon,  at  a  distance  of  eight  feet  from  the  earth,  the 
scale  of  distances  here  being  one-fifth  the  scale  of  magnitudes, 
moves  true  to  nature  in  all  its  motions,  its  phases  shown  by  a 
mechanism  similar  to  that  representing  day  and  night  on  the 
earth ;  all  these  are  moved  with  beautiful  precision  by  an 
apparatus  invented  and  perfected  for  that  purpose. 

The  models  of  the  outer  planets  are  each  built  on  the  same 
scale  of  500  miles  to  the  inch,  and  made  to  show  the  char- 
acteristic features  of  the  planets  represented ;  each  moves  in  its 
orbit  and  on  its  axis  in  its  true  time ;  no  attempt,  however,  is 
made  to  model  the  asteroids  in  this  orrery.  Jupiter  is  a  shining 
sphere  about  thirteen  feet  in  diameter.  Saturn,  about  eight  feet 
in  diameter,  with  its  rings  and  satellites,  makes  a  very  striking 


A  Nezv  Utopian  Schoolhousc.  263 

object  in  the  hall.  Uranus  and  Neptune  also  are  very  notice- 
able objects,  the  latter  running-  on  its  orbit  very  near  to  the 
circle  of  supporting  columns  under  the  margin  of  the  great 
dome. 

Returning  to  the  central  sun,  a  movable  step  is  placed  for 
us  under  it  on  the  south  side,  and,  the  attendant  touching  a 
spring,  an  invisible  door  opens  and  we  step  inside.  Then  we 
mount  a  spiral  metallic  stairway  to  the  center  of  the  sphere, 
where  we  reach  a  platform  about  ten  feet  in  diameter  and  sur- 
rounded by  a  railing.  The  door  by  which  we  entered  closed 
immediately  behind  us,  and  now  we  find  ourselves  in  a  hollow 
sphere  very  faintly  illuminated  by  one  incandescent  light  just 
over  the  platform,  with  a  shade  above  and  about  it.  As  our 
eyes  become  accustomed  to  the  gloom,  we  perceive  that  we  are 
in  the  center  of  a  celestial  globe.  The  door  by  which  we  entered 
is  at  the  south  pole  of  the  heavens ;  the  shell  of  the  sphere  is 
pierced  to  correspond  with  every  visible  fixed  star,  and  minute 
points  of  electric  light  moved  in  their  proper  course  along  fine 
wires  on  the  inside  of  the  globe,  mark  the  visible  planets  each 
in  its  place.  Each  visible  star  is  made  a  very  little  brighter 
here  than  its  apparent  magnitude  in  the  sky,  in  order  to  give 
inferior  eyes  here  the  power  which  good  ones  enjoy  in  the  open 
sky.  The  shell  of  this  great  globe,  which  seen  from  the  out- 
side is  all  alike,  is  moved  about  its  axis  in  star  time,  so  that 
the  apparent  position  of  the  stars  at  any  time  corresponds 
with  their  position  if  observed  in  the  heavens  at  that  time ;  this 
motion  is  effected  through  friction  rollers  moved  by  clockwork 
in  the  supports  on  which  the  globe  rests.  The  platform  on 
which  the  observer  stands,  together  with  the  stairway  by  which 
we  ascend,  rests  on  fine  casters  and  remains  in  its  proper  posi- 
tion by  its  own  weight.  The  inside  of  this  sphere  is  painted  a 
deep  blue,  and  the  milky  way  and  the  visible  nebulae  are 
painted  in  their  place  with  phosphorescent  paint  in  such  a  man- 


y 


264  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

ner  that  their  faint  luminosity  is  scarcely  distinguishable  from 
that  with  which  they  appear  on  a  star  lit  night.  Standing  here 
one  seems  to  be  in  very  truth  in  the  midst  of  the  open  heavens 
on  such  a  night,  with  the  advantage  that  no  part  of  the  heavens 
is  concealed  by  the  earth. 

Returning  to  the  hall  of  the  sun  and  looking  up  into  the 
great  dome  above,  we  perceive  that  its  vault  is  illuminated  by 
another  orb  which  is  suspended  exactly  in  its  center,  though 
as  seen  from  the  floor  it  appears  close  to  the  ceiling.  This 
represents  nothing  but  a  chandelier,  though  in  looking  at  it 
one  is  apt  to  think  of  the  moon.  The  eye  not  realizing  its 
distance,  it  would  be  impossible  to  judge  its  size,  but  its  diam- 
eter, we  are  told,  is  sixty-five  feet.  This  globe  is  covered 
with  frosted  aluminum  and  it  is  lighted  by  a  triple  corona  of 
powerful  electric  lights,  each  placed  in  the  focus  of  a  parabolic 
reflector  with  its  axis  directed  toward  the  center  of  the  sphere, 
so  that  to  the  observer  the  lights  themselves  are  invisible. 
The  light  reflected  from  this  orb  illuminates  the  interior  of 
the  great  vault  in  a  manner  very  satisfactory  to  the  eye.  The 
inner  surface  of  the  great  dome  itself  is  lined  with  frosted 
aluminum  similar  to  that  on  the  central  orb,  and  as  the  eye 
wanders  over  its  expanse  we  perceive  that  it  is  set  with  some 
two  hundred  little  balconies,  to  each  of  which  a  door  opens 
from  the  gallery  between  the  shells  of  the  dome,  and  over 
each  is  a  line  of  incandescent  lights  that  twinkle  like  stars 
as  one  looks  up  at  them. 

Proposed  designs  for  the  decoration  of  the  interior  of  this 
dome  are  on  exhibition  in  the  offices  of  the  department  of 
construction  in  the  city  hall,  where  anyone  who  feels  so 
moved  may  submit  another.  These  designs  are  competitors 
for  the  favor  and  criticism  of  the  people,  but  it  is  not  intended 
"to  close  the  competition  and  reach  a  decision  in  this  matter 
until  1960,  thirteen  years  hence. 


A  New  Utopian  Schoolhouse.  265 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

(A  New  Utopian  School  House  Continued — The  Gallery  of 

Evolution.) 

All  about  the  margin  of  the  hall  of  the  sun,  as  has  been 
specified,  the  height  of  the  ceiling  is  reduced  to  fifty  feet.  In 
each  of  the  six  angles  is  a  double  elevator  shaft  reaching  from 
the  ground  floor  to  the  roof.  All  around  the  six  sides  of  the 
hall,  between  these  elevators  at  the  angles,  with  one  excep- 
tion, there  is  an  unbroken  succession  of  windows  or  rather, 
except  when  the  weather  calls  for  closing  them,  open  doors, 
reaching  from  the  floor  to  the  ceiling  and  opening  upon  the 
bordering  promenade  on  the  roof  of  the  hall  of  industry.  In 
the  middle  of  the  western  face,  however,  this  succession  of 
open  windows  is  interrupted  by  a  broad  stairway  ascending  to 
the  gallery  above.  Mounting  this  stairway,  which  in  its  lower 
half  rises  toward  the  western  wall,  but  turns  on  a  broad  land- 
ing and  opens  into  the  gallery  above  toward  the  north,  we 
enter  the  gallery  of  evolution. 

This  is  a  long  gallery,  a  hundred  feet  wide,  nearly  thirty- 
three  feet  high,  extending  three  times  round  the  hall  of  the 
sun,  making  its  length,  measured  around  its  outer  border,  ar- 
little  more  than  three  miles.  This  gallery  is  designed,  so  far 
as  art  can  compass  the  end,  to  put  the  visitor  in  the  presence, 
in  appearance,  of  every  stage  in  the  development  of  the 
world,  from  primordial  nothingness  to  the  historic  epoch.  __ 

It  contains  a  panorama ;  the  panorama  of  eternity. 

Here  where  we  enter  is  nothing  but  the  blue  of  empty 


266  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

space  on  walls,  and  ceiling  and  floor;  or,  perhaps,  we  might 
fancy  a  slight  cloudiness  pervades  them,  but  nothing  more. 
Passing  on  a  little,  the  cloudiness  is  unmistakable,  and  here 
art  has  done  its  uttermost  to  depict  the  first  beginnings  of  a 
world  and  its  satellite,  indefinite  in  outline,  misty  in  their 
nebulous  envelope. 

Then  it  is  clearer ;  we  see  depicted  a  glowing  fiery  sur- 
face below,  a  glowing  satellite  above,  the  sun,  broad-faced  and 
lurid,  across  the  ceiling,  blending  into  cloud  in  its  outline  and 
less  brilliant  than  the  fiery  moon.  A  little  farther  on,  the 
scene  is  darkened  as  if  the  earth  were  swathed  in  dense  clouds 
of  smoke ;  neither  moon  nor  sun  is  seen ;  the  earth's  surface 
glows  a  dull  red  and  metallic  oxyds  are  precipitated  as  a  thick 
dust  upon  it,  floating  here  and  there  on  a  surface  of  molten 
metal.  Again,  the  scene  is  cooler,  but  the  vapor  yet  dense; 
a  rain  of  salt  covers  the  planet  like  a  heavy  snow. 

We  go  on  ;  the  darkness  deepens.  It  rains.  It  pours. 
Lightning  here  and  there  breaks  the  gloom,  and  here  and 
there  a  hot  rock  repels  the  falling  water  in  clouds  of  steam. 

Again,  it  is  lighter,  but  yet  dark  with  clouds.  Ocean  now 
covers  the  earth,  but  it  is  an  ocean  of  hot  water,  loaded  with 
minerals  in  which  no  creature  can  live.  These  scenes,  we  are 
made  to  understand,  cover  immeasurable  aeons  of  time. 

Again,  it  is  clearer ;  the  dull  sun  peeps  broad-faced 
through  the  clouds  overhead,  the  dull  moon  appears  half- 
way down  in  the  margin.  Some  of  the  minerals  have  crystal- 
ized  and  separated  from  the  water,  forming  thick  beds  of 
granite  in  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  Here  and  there  swelling 
bubbles  of  land  break  the  surface  of  the  sea,  but  their  sub- 
stance is  unstable  and  the  waters  are  agitated  in  fury  so  that 
as  fast  as  earth  is  uplifted  the  swelling  land  is  torn  down  and 


A  Nczu  Utopian  Schoolhousc.  267 

again  spread  on  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  We  pass  on,  and  now 
the  sea  is  more  quiet,  its  waters  are  transparent.  A  brighter 
sun,  not  so  broad-faced,  shines  above :  yonder  moon  in  quad- 
rature looks  famiHar ;  we  have  turned  the  first  angle  in  the 
gallery  here  and  are  in  the  silurian  age  of  geology ;  we  see 
down  in  the  shallow  waters  where  thick-bedded  mollusks  clus- 
ter ;  there  beds  of  crinoids  wave  their  tentacle  fringes,  while 
trilobites  creep  and  crawl  about  among  them.  Yonder  is  the 
great  orthoceras ;  coral  beds  cover  the  ocean's  bottomi;  here 
are  a  hundred  kinds  of  marine  life  thick  peopling  the  waters, 
but  not  a  vertebrate  among  them  all.  A  few  low-lying,  rocky 
banks  rise  above  the  water  and  mosses  grow  on  them  in  vary- 
ing forms,  passing  from  the  sea  weeds  in  the  water  to  the 
mosses  on  the  margin,  and  these  varying  in  form  and  habit 
of  growth  until  some  of  them  are  fern-like  in  their  luxuriance ; 
and  mollusks,  some  with  shells  and  some  without,  crawl  out 
of  the  water  to  feed  on  these  mosses,  and  some  learn  to  live 
there.  Among  these  primitive  and  non-specialized  forms 
variation  is  easy,  and  in  this  scenery  a  hundred  gaps  between 
form  and  form  are  filled  with  intermediate  forms  that  in  later 
stages  of  evolution  have  perished  altogether.  Many  long  ages 
are  here  depicted,  but  we  pass  on. 

Now  a  few  fishes  appear  in  the  water ;  a  little  farther  they 
have  grown  many  and  great  and  strange  of  form.  We  are 
now  in  the  devonian  age.  The  land  growths  also  have  become 
more  varied  and  of  higher  type. 

But  we  pass  by  life-sized  pictures  and  modeled  scenery, 
stretching  far,  in  which  the  slow  evolution  of  many  types  by 
sea  and  land  appears. 

Now  from  the  seaweeds  and  the  mosses  a  vegetation  great 
and  strange  has  developed.  We  enter  a  forest  of  tree  ferns 
and  great   liuted  rushes  as  high  as   our  gallery  will  permit 


268  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

them  and  then  cut  off  in  the  middle  for  want  of  room,  erect, 
leaning,  sprawling  recumbent,  forty,  fifty,  or  sixty  feet  long 
and  a  foot  and  a  half  thick  among  a  dense  tangle  of  marsh 
vegetation  beneath.  The  sprawling  branches  of  the  lepidoden- 
dron  interlace  themselves  over  our  heads,  and  great  tangled 
roots  form  a  thick  mat  on  the  marshy  ground. 

Of  the  animal  types  there  remain  the  fish  and  the  mol- 
lusks,  and  the  corals  as  before,  though  many  forms  have 
passed  away.  Among  the  fish,  lizard-like  types  are  developing, 
and,  as  in  the  silurian  age,  it  was  with  the  water  moUusks,  so 
now  it  is  with  the  fishes,  some  of  the  lizard-like  variations  of 
these  are  taking  to  the  marshy  borders  for  their  prey  and 
learning  to  live  there.  Other  types  have  developed,  too ;  here 
and  there  is  a  gigantic  frog,  and  insects,  on  which  the  frog 
has  come  to  prey,  are  flitting  in  the  air  and  resting  on  the 
ferns  and  rushes  over  the  marshes. 

This  scenery  is  modeled  in  aluminum  and  colored  with 
exquisite  art.  Where  the  modeler's  art  ends  the  painter's 
begins,  and  on  walls  and  ceiling  so  nicely  is  this  painting 
adjusted  to  the  modeled  scenery  between  the  walls  that  the 
eye  hardly  distinguishes  where  the  one  ends  and  the  other 
begins,  and  the  gallery  appears  as  boundless  as  the  wilderness 
it  represents. 

Everything  that  has  been  revealed  to  scientific  research 
regarding  the  conditions  and  variations  of  life  may  be  found 
here,  each  in  its  place.  The  variations  of  each  form  may  be 
noticed  as  we  pass  along,  so  that  the  process  of  evolution  as 
one  species  varies  and  gives  rise  to  others,  is  unfolded  to  the 
eye.  Not  at  a  glance,  however,  as  one  passes  through,  can  all 
this  be  seen,  any  more  than  without  careful  attention  and 
study  we  can  see  all  there  is  to  be  seen  in  nature  around  us, 


A  Nczv  Utopian  SchooUwusc.  269 

it  is  the  cataclysms  and  the  consummation  of  epochs  that 
one  notices  most  on  merely  passing  through.  And  here  such 
a  change  is  upon  us. 

A  flood  breaks  over  the  scene ;  the  vegetation  is  swept 
together  in  great  masses,  filling  valleys  and  deeply  covering 
the  marshes  where  some  of  the  heaped-up  debris  has  grown. 
Sand  and  mud  is  spread  over  the  heaped-up  vegetation  by  the 
rushing  waters ;  and  now  the  monstrous  vegetation  starts 
anew  above  the  mud  and  grows  into  a  tangle  more  dense  than 
before.    It  is  the  coal  period  through  which  we  are  passing. 

But  here  we  have  completed  one  circuit  of  the  building 
and  are  come  again  to  a  broad  flight  of  steps  which  are  just 
over  the  stairway  by  which  we  entered  the  gallery.  The 
scenery  continues,  however,  up  the  stairs  and  on. 

And  now  the  earth  begins  to  have  a  more  habitable  ap- 
pearance. The  land  seems  more  firm,  the  waters  more  open 
and  clear. 

But  what  is  that  which  seems  to  be  rushing  through  the 
water  yonder,  half  crocodile  and  half  fish,  and  as  long  as  a 
whale?  That  is  the  ichthyosaurus.  And,  see  yonder,  those 
snaky  necks  and  snaky  heads  rising  high  above  the  water, 
and  the  tortoise-like  bodies  that  carry  them.  The  creatures 
seem  to  be  fishing  yonder  on  the  shallows ;  they  are  the 
plesiosaurus.  And  here,  as  we  enter  this  grove,  is  a  flight  of 
strange  creatures  in  the  air ;  they  are  of  various  sizes,  but 
are  neither  birds  nor  bats,  winged  lizards  rather ;  these  are 
pterodactyls.  And  yonder,  among  the  rushes  by  the  water's 
edge,  are  the  dinosaurus  and  the  iguanodon,  and  through 
these  jungles  and  about  these  waters  wander  strange  creatures 
a-plenty,  both  great  and  small,  but  lizard-like  in  form  and 
features  nearly  all  of  them.    Some  are  stalking  about  on  their 


270  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

hind  legs  like  birds,  with  their  heads  lifted  high,  but  dragging 
a  reptile  tail  behind  them. 

A  little  farther  on  we  come  to  some  lizards  whose  necks 
and  legs  have  grown  bird-like,  or  birds  that  are  lizard-like, 
which?  Their  scales  seem  to  have  grown  long  and  split  into 
coarse  feathers ;  their  reptilian  beaks  have  teeth  ;  their  long- 
jointed  tails  have  grown  quills,  one  on  each  side  of  each 
joint,  and  by  the  aid  of  quilled  wings  they  can  fly.  These  are 
the  Archeopterix  macrouri,  and  there  are  variations  on  the 
type. 

Yonder  in  the  grove  is  the  great  glyptodon  with  his  tor- 
toise-like body  and  head,  his  crocodile-like  tail,  and  his  enor- 
mous strength  and  weight,  tearing  down  trees  for  his  food. 

A  little  farther  on,  here  is  the  megatherium  and  other 
beasts  of  various  sizes,  of  mammillian  type,  but  reptilian 
features.  A  new  type  is  coming  on  the  stage,  but  there  are 
no  breaks  in  the  chain  of  evolution,  and  in  this  gallery  nearly 
all  gaps  are  filled  between  fish  and  reptile,  between  reptile  and 
bird  on  the  one  hand  and  between  reptile  and  mammal  on  the 
other.  One  of  these  queer  links  has  survived  through  the 
ages  to  our  own  time,  in  the  ornithorynchus  or  duck-billed 
platypus  of  Australia. 

These  trees  and  bushes  and  these  water  plants  grow  ever 
more  familiar  and  natural  in  their  appearance  as  we  pass  on. 
The  water  yonder  is  full  of  fish  of  types  common  in  our  own 
time ;  the  strange  forms  common  in  the  devonian  age  are 
gone,  but  the  corals  and  the  moUusks  have  changed  but  little 
since  away  back  yonder  in  the  silurian  age,  when  their  ances- 
tors first  peopled  the  seas. 

But  here,  again,  we  come  to  the  second  flight  of  stairs 
and  again  the  scenery  continues  without  interruption  as  we 
pass  up. 


A  New  Utopian  Schoolhouse.  271 

Some  of  the  trees  that  appear  about  us  now,  we  could 
call  by  name,  but  the  beasts  that  dwell  in  these  forests  and 
roam  these  plains  and  haunt  these  marshes  are  many,  and 
many  of  them  are  g^reat  and  fierce.  Here  are  s^reat  tapirs  and 
rhinoceroses,  and  yonder  is  the  little  eohippus,  the  five-toed 
ancestor  of  the  horse.  And  with  these  come  ape-like  forms 
upon  the  scene  that  skip  amons^  the  trees  and  live  on  nuts 
and  fruit,  and  down  by  the  sea  shore  they  dig^  clams  to  vary 
their  diet,  and  they  hide  themselves  amonof  the  rocks,  and 
in  the  tree  tops,  and  flee  from  the  g^reat  beasts  which  are  too 
strono^  for  them. 

Farther  on  the  g^reat  beasts  have  j^rown  yet  more  numer- 
ous and  more  fierce,  but  many  of  them  we  could  now  recog- 
nize and  call  by  name.  Here  is  the  saber-toothed  tiger,  and 
the  great  cave  bear,  and  hyenas  and  lions,  all  far  too  large  for 
their  kinds  as  known  to  the  modern  world.  And  here  is  the 
mastodon,  too,  herds  of  them,  in  the  thickets  and  about  the 
marshes. 

But  here  our  attention  is  called  to  a  scene  that  marks 
the  branching  ofif  of  another  kind..  It  is  near  the  edge  of  a 
lava  flow  from  a  volcano  and  some  dry  wood  has  been  burned 
by  fire  spreading  from  the  lava.  A  group  of  the  larger  ape- 
like creatures,  full  of  curiosity,  are  prowling  around  the  ashes 
when  one  of  their  number  burns  himself  on  some  smouldering 
fire.  Like  all  other  animals,  these  have  feared  fire,  but,  angry 
and  smarting  from  the  burn,  this  ape  snatches  the  brand  that 
has  burned  him  and  throws  it  violently  away.  It  lights  on 
other  dry  vegetation  and  a  new  fire  is  kindled  and  the  apes 
stand  shivering  by  and  watch  while  it  burns. 

Another  scene ;  one  of  the  young  apes  returns  and  stirs 
the  ashes  with  a  stick  and  smoke  rises  again.  He  puts  more 
fuel  upon  it  and  flames  burst  forth ;  two  or  three  other  young 


272  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

anthropoids  join  him,  and  as  the  fire  burns  down  they  add 
more  fuel.  They  seem  to  like  to  play  with  fire  as  many  a 
human  child  in  after  ages  has  done.  But  the  older  apes  are 
conservatives,  and,  with  many  a  fierce  claw  and  cuf¥  and  bite, 
they  express  their  displeasure  at  what  the  youngsters  have 
done. 

A  group  of  these  youngsters  have,  however,  learned,  with 
the  help  of  fire,  to  start  a  fire,  and,  associating  with  each  other, 
they  take  to  building  fires  at  the  doors  of  their  dens,  and  thus 
they  have  a  great  advantage  over  the  others  who  fear  the 
fire.  They  take  to  using  fire  in  their  conflicts  with  the  other 
animals,  both  in  attack  and  defense,  and  now  the  fire-using 
ape,  instead  of  shrinking  in  terror  away  from  all  stronger 
beasts,  is  master  of  them  all  and  they  flee  from  him. 

The  conservative  tribes  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  weather, 
and  they  are  over-powered  by  the  fierce  beasts  of  the  forest; 
they  dwindle  out  and  perish,  or,  where  the  climate  most 
favors  them,  they  leave  a  posterity  of  more  agile  and  smaller 
monkeys  skipping  among  the  trees.  But  the  fire-using  apes 
advance  toward  the  north  and  nuiltiply,  and  make  war  on  the 
great  beasts  and  conquer  them.  They  even  attack  the  great 
mammoth  and  kill  him.  Their  brain  power,  giving  some  of 
them  greater  readiness  in  devising  expedients  to  win  victory, 
or  acquire  food,  or  to  find  or  construct  shelter  and  warm  it, 
becomes  a  greater  and  greater  factor  in  their  welfare.  The 
progressive  multiply,  the  conservative  perish,  and  the  descend- 
ants of  the  apes  that  took  to  using  fire  are  men. 

Not  yet,  however,  men  such  as  now  people  the  earth ; 
their  arms  are  long,  they  stoop  forward,  and  often  fall  on  all 
fours ;  they  skip  among  the  branches  of  the  trees  as  their 
ancestors  did  before  them ;  their  bodies  are  clad  with  hair 
and  they  wear  no  other  garment.      Physically  they  are  an- 


A  Nnv  Utopian  Schoolhouse.  273 

thropoidal  apes.  Such  was  miocene  and  early  pliocene  man, 
"the  missing  link,''  but  a  new  variant  had  been  introduced 
into  the  world,  namely,  mind,  and  armed  with  a  new  weapon, 
namely,  fire. 

We  watch  this  newly  endowed  creature  now  as  we  pass 
along  the  gallery.  Gradually,  as  he  becomes  accustomed  to 
the  mastery  over  all  animated  nature  which  the  use  of  fire 
gives  him,  he  forsakes  his  tree-climbing  habits  and  takes  more 
to  the  rocks.     He  has  become  the  cave  man. 

He  learns  to  dig  pitfalls  in  which  to  capture  the  larger 
beasts  on  which  he  preys,  and  he  takes  to  sharpening  slender 
poles  in  the  fire  and  using  them  as  lances  in  his  wars  against 
the  beasts,  and  against  his  own  kind,  too.  He  takes  to  bind- 
ing splinters  of  stone  in  his  club  to  make  his  weapon  more 
deadly,  and  to  using  sharp  splinters  of  stone  as  implements 
for  other  purposes.  Naturally,  too,  he  learns  to  break  stones 
and  to  shape  such  splinters  roughly  to  suit  the  purpose  for 
which  he  desires  to  use  them. 

And  this  is  all  for  many  ages. 

Then  some  great  cataclysm  comes  on  the  earth ;  the  great 
hairy  mammoths  of  Northern  Asia  flee  in  herds  and  perish 
together,  and  their  bodies  are  covered  with  snow  and  em- 
bedded in  ice  before  the  flesh  has  time  to  decay  from  their 
bones,  and  some  of  them  have  remained  thus  frozen  solid 
even  to  our  own  time.  The  same  great  disturbance  drives  the 
denizens  of  other  parts  of  the  earth  to  perish  together  in  multi- 
tudes likewise.  Great  continents  of  the  earth  are  strangely 
plunged  beneath  the  water  and  as  strangely  emerge  again, 
and  this  repeatedly.  Sand,  gravel,  clay,  earth,  and  rocks,  are 
torn  from  their  ancient  beds  and  cast  in  tumultuous  heaps 
on  the  plains  and  into  the  waters,  and  with  these  cataclysms 
came  the  ice,  but  certainly  the  ice  did  not  cause  the  cataclvsms. 


274  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

and  as  certainly  their  onset  was  not  g-radual  with  the  slow  pro- 
gress of  secular  changes.  Not  yet  have  we  read  the  causes  of 
these  convulsions  aright,  but  the  earth  was  well  nigh  depopu- 
lated. Both  man  and  beast  perished,  leaving  but  a  remnant  of 
survivors. 

The  earth-shudder  recurs  again  and  again,  while  the  ice 
lies  deep  on  the  land.  And  the  snow  and  ice  last  long;  it 
retreats  and  again  advances ;  and  the  beasts  and  the  men, 
descendants  of  the  remnant  that  escaped  the  cataclysms  in  the 
outset,  follow  its  retreat  and  retreat  before  its  advances ;  their 
tribes  are  mercilessly  weeded  out  in  the  struggle;  they  who 
are  strong  in  body  and  fertile  in  expedient  live;  they  who  are 
slow  to  change  their  ways,  who  adhere  strongly  to  the  cus- 
toms and  conditions  to  which  they  were  born,  perish ;  not  a 
conservative  survives  the  sifting,  and  in  the  bitter  conflict  with 
unfriendly  nature  through  a  thousand  generations  homo  sapiens 
is  developed. 

But  there  are  regions  here  portrayed  that  have  suffered 
less  from  these  convulsions.  Yonder,  where  the  ocean  inter- 
posed a  barrier  against  the  ice,  a  remnant  who  have  fled  by 
water  have  found  a  friendly  retreat  and  developed  something  of 
a  civilization.  They  find  metallic  copper  in  thick  flakes  as 
nature  deposited  it,  and,  hammering  and  chiseling  these  into 
such  shapes  as  they  wish,  they  improve  their  tools  and  their 
weapons. 

But  now  convulsions  of  nature  overwhelm  this  retreat  in 
turn,  and  amidst  earthquake  and  storm  and  volcanic  fires  this 
favored  land  sinks  beneath  the  sea.  This  is  Atlantis ;  but  men 
bearing  with  them  the  arts  of  Atlantis  have  from  time  to  time 
wandered  elsewhere,  to  the  shores  of  Britain  and  continental 
Europe,  where  the  conflict  with  nature,  and  the  natural  selec- 
tion among  men  that  it  carried  with  it,  had  lasted  much  longer 


A  Nczv  Utopian  ScJwollwusc.  275 

and  gone  much  farther  than  it  had  when  the  Atlanteans  colon- 
ized their  island.  They  had  gone  to  Egypt,  also,  and  colonized 
there,  where  the  primitive  people  of  the  ancient  type  vanished 
before  them.  For  in  Africa,  removed  beyond  the  reach  and 
knowledge  of  those  who  were  struggling  with  the  ice  of  the 
glacial  epoch  and  the  convulsions  of  nature  that  preceded  and 
accompanied  it,  great  regions  were  scarcely  at  all  affected  by 
these  vicissitudes.  There  the  primeval  pithecoid  man  followed 
the  natural  course  of  evolution,  and  the  conservative  type  who 
adhered  to  the  ways  of  their  fathers  survived  and  dominated 
the  race ;  to  this  is  due  the  unprogressive  negro  type. 

But  we  pass  on,  and  as  we  go  we  watch  the  progress  of 
the  tribes  that  sprang  from  those  whose  ancestors  had  been 
weeded  and  sifted  in  the  conflict  with  inhospitable  nature  amid 
the  ice  and  the  floods,  and  all  the  cataclysms  and  vicissitudes  of 
thirty  thousand  years. 

The  unprogressive  types  have  been  exterminated  from 
among  them,  and  the  ape  characteristics  are  eliminated ;  it  is  a 
higher  type  of  man  that  repeoples  the  plains  of  Europe  and 
Northern  Asia  as  the  ice  finally  retreats;  but  the  new  tribes 
jostle  and  contend  with  each  other,  and  send  out  swarms  of 
emigrants  to  v/ar  against  those  who  have  occupied  the  earth 
before  them.  We  are  now  among  a  shepherd  race,  from  which 
springs  swarm  after  swarm  of  such  emigrants.  Their  home,  we 
understand,  is  Central  Asia,  and  these  are  the  Aryans. 

But  here  we  again  come  to  the  stairs,  and  the  third  and 
final  spire  of  the  gallery  of  evolution  ends  here.  The  stairs 
this  time  ascend  not  toward  the  north  as  before,  but  turn 
toward  the  right  hand  directly  eastward.  Ascending  them, 
we  find  ourselves  in  a  sort  of  pavilion  on  the  roof  of  the  hall 
of  the  sun  which  opens  on  three  sides  directly  upon  the  flat 
top  of  the  building,  but  on  the  fourth,  the  eastward  side,  it 


276  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

opens  into  a  corridor  leading  directly  into  the  base  of  the 
great  dome. 

Each  of  the  six  elevators  at  the  angles  also  terminate 
in  a  similar  pavilion  to  this  with  a  similar  corridor  leading  into 
the  great  dome. 

These,  however,  lead  to  the  landings  of  elevators  that  run 
up  the  dome  to  the  observatory  on  the  vertex,  while  this  leads 
to  a  short  stairway,  at  the  head  of  which  the  gallery  of  historv 
begins. 


A  Nezv  Utopian  Sdwolhoiise.  277 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

(A  New  Utopian  School  House  Concluded.) 
The  Gallery  of  History;  An  Excursion  Round  the  Earth. 

The  door  at  the  end  of  the  corridor  by  which  we  enter 
the  great  dome  opens  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  a  thousand  miles, 
more  or  less,  west  of  Chile. 

Turning  to  the  left  and  mounting  a  short  flight  of  stairs, 
we  find  ourselves  at  the  beginning  of  another  gallery  which 
here  is  about  fifty  feet  in  width,  though  in  the  course  of  two 
turns  about  the  dome  its  width  expands  to  a  hundred  feet. 
The  height  of  this  gallery  is  twenty-five  feet  minus  the  thick- 
ness of  floor  and  ceiling.  It  stretches  interminably  before 
us  bending  continually  toward  the  right  in  its  circuit  of  the 
globe.  The  floor  rises  as  we  advance,  sufficiently  to  bring  it 
in  the  course  of  each  circuit  above  the  ceiling  of  the  preced- 
ing circle,  but  this  rise  is  imperce])tible.  There  are  about  sixty 
laps  in  this  spiral  between  its  beginning  at  the  base  of  the  dome 
and  its  termination  under  the  vertex,  and  the  whole  length  of 
the  gallery  is  more  than  fifty  miles.  During  the  day  the  greater 
part  of  this  gallery  is  well  lighted  through  the  glass  tiling  that 
represents  the  water  of  the  earth  on  the  outside  map,  neverthe- 
less artificial  light  is  everywhere  provided  sufficient  to  render 
the  gallery  entirely  independent  of  the  daylight. 

The  same  combination  of  models  and  painting  which  we 
have  seen  in  the  hall  of  evolution  is  continued  in  this  gallery, 
though  here  the  modeling  is  mostly  devoted  to  the  setting  of 
natural  scenery  appropriate  to  the  foreground  in  the  time  and 
locality  portrayed,  while  the  historic  movement  is  set  forth 


278  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

in  paintings  accompanied  by  the  printed  narrative  so  far  as  this 
is  needed ;  and  here  every  portion  of  the  gallery  is  devoted  to 
a  definite  epoch,  each  century  and  decade  being  blazoned  on 
the  border  under  the  edge  of  the  ceiling.  Each  nation  and  re- 
gion of  the  earth  is  given  parallel  space,  Africa  and  the  southern 
hemisphere  being  assigned  the  inner  curvature  on  the  right 
as  we  advance. 

Everywhere,  for  every  epoch  the  scenery  is  true  to  the  por- 
tion of  the  earth  depicted  at  the  time  represented;  it  forms  the 
setting  for  the  historic  scenes  and  permits  the  portrayal  of  the 
every-day  life,  the  habitations,  the  arts,  conditions,  customs,  im- 
plements, and  mode  of  life  of  every  people  in  every  stage  of 
their  evolution. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  gallery  we  find  ourselves  again 
in  the  presence  of  the  Aryan  shepherds,  to  whom  we  were 
introduced  at  the  end  of  the  gallery  of  evolution,  but  in  paral- 
lel lines  is  scenery  portraying  the  condition  of  every  other 
people  and  part  of  the  earth,  concerning  which  at  this  epoch 
anything  is  known. 

Here  we  witness  the  migrations  and  wars  of  the  Aryan 
tribes  against  their  less  energetic  neighbors,  the  overrunning 
of  the  plains  of  Hindostan,  the  congealation  of  this  type  in  a 
conservatism  of  its  own  in  Thibet,  the  colonization  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  the  progress  of  the  Atlantean  civilization  in  Egypt, 
and  of  the  Chaldean  in  Persia  and  Arminea,  while  the  lake 
dwellers  yet  linger  in  Europe.  We  witness  the  building  of  the 
Egyptian  pyramids,  and  the  rise  and  fall  of  all  the  great  peo- 
ples of  antiquity.  Scattered  along  not  far  from  the  inner  curva- 
ture of  the  gallery  are  a  few  pieces  giving  us  hints  of  conditions 
in  the  unknown  western  continent  through  all  these  ages. 

Every  event  and  every  condition  of  life  that  history  has 
recorded  or  archeological  research  has  revealed  is  depicted 


A  New  Utopian  SclwoUwme.  279 

here,  and  whenever  some  new  delver  in  the  dust  of  antiquity  re- 
veals some  episode  that  history  had  lost  and  some  new  artist 
portrays  it  a  place  awaits  it  here.  And  every  piece  that  is 
admitted  here  is  accepted  provisionally,  to  remain  until  some 
other  artist  produces  a  work  that  meets  its  purpose  better ;  then, 
the  new  work  having  its  truthfulness  and  its  artistic  merit 
tried  in  the  court  of  history  and  being  judged  worthy  to  suc- 
ceed the  old,  the  substitution  is  made. 

That  fidelity  to  truth  under  this  plan  causes  much  of  this 
gallery  to  partake  of  the  qualities  of  a  chamber  of  horrors  is 
no  fault  of  the  New  Utopians,  but  it  is  well  that  history,  even 
the  horrors  of  histor}-,  should  not  be  forgotten  as  the  world 
passes  into  a  better  era. 

But  to  attempt,  on  this  occasion,  to  see  the  history  of  the 
world,  or  to  tell  it  here,  would  be  absurd.  There  are  nearly 
forty  miles  of  it  in  this  gallery,  while  the  upper  turns  of  the 
spiral,  which  belong  to  the  future,  are  devoted  to  the  ideal. 

In  the  commercial  age,  a  few  years  ago,  before  the  con- 
struction of  such  a  building,  or  such  a  gallery  as  this  could 
have  been  attempted,  the  question  must  have  been  asked :  will 
it  pay?  All  this  work  must  have  been  measured  in  money, 
and  after  it  was  done  it  must  have  paid  perpetual  tribute  to 
those  who  had  advanced  the  funds,  or  the  credit ;  and  the  cost, 
so  measured,  would  have  been  so  enormous,  and  when  com- 
pleted, the  use  of  the  work  under  the  restrictions  necessary 
in  order  to  raise  the  required  revenues  would  have  been  so 
limited  that  the  answer  must  have  been  quick  and  conclusive  : 
no  it  will  not  pay,  and  therefore,  under  the  commercial  system 
such  a  building  could  never  have  been  built. 

But  did  that  system  pay?  When  the  majority  were  in 
want,  and  almost  all  were  in  the  fear  and  danger  of  want ;  when 
they  who  were  in  the  greatest  need  could  not  lift  a  hand  to 


280  Perfectinf^  the  Earth. 

satisfy  their  need  except  with  the  permission  and  for  the 
profit  of  others  who  had  plenty,  it  was  a  sorry  reward  they  got 
for  all  their  hustling. 

Now  there  is  no  need  to  ask  that  question ;  now  there  is 
no  want,  nor  danger  of  it. 

For  a  long  time,  as  we  have  seen,  the  whole  population 
have  been  students  with  ample  leisure  to  develop  their  talents. 
Under  the  conditions  of  life  prevailing  in  New  Utopia  not  to  be 
a  student  is  to  demean  one's  self  and  lose  the  respect  of  one's 
neighbors.  Naturally,  among  these  people  there  are  many 
artists  who  are  also  historians,  and  many  historians  who  are 
also  artists.  To  furnish  this  great  gallery  of  history,  or  the 
gallery  of  evolution  beneath,  is  with  them  a  labor  of  love,  and 
to  have  a  piece  here  is  an  honor  to  be  coveted.  If  any  one 
thinks  that  they  who  have  built  this  great  building  and  fur- 
nished it  have  taken  no  pleasure  in  their  work  he  knows  not 
human  nature ;  and  for  the  rational  satisfaction  which  any  one 
may  enjoy  in  having  at  his  door  such  an  epitome  as  this  of  all 
that  man  has  ever  been  or  known  or  done,  who  would  be  so 
dull  and  so  indolent  as  to  refuse  to  contribute  his  effort? 

The  people  of  New  Utopia  had  but  to  compute  the  num- 
ber of  days  of  labor  required  with  the  machinery  and  methods 
in  use,  in  order  to  construct  this  building,  and  then  to  tax 
themselves  extra  hours  enough  to  cover  it  in  a  reasonable  time, 
and  the  building  was  constructed.  They  have  worked  an  extra 
hour  each  day  for  six  years,  the  retired  men  up  to  the  age 
of  sixty  at  their  urgent  request  sharing  the  tax,  and  this  build- 
ing is  the  result,  completed,  paid  for  and  free.  The  art  work  is 
all  amateur  work  done  at  the  artists'  pleasure,  and  it  is  free.  O, 
yes !    It  pays. 

One  may  take  either  of  these  elevators  from  the  base  of 
the  dome  or  from  any  point  above,  mentioning  the  century  he 


A  New  Utopian  SclwoUwuse.  281 

wishes  to  visit,  and  be  landed  amon^j^  the  people  and  the 
scenes  he  wishes  to  see. 

We  will  take  the  elevator  here  to  the  observatory  on  the 
top  of  the  dome.  Entering  the  car  which  is  suspended  in  its 
running  frame,  and  therefore  adjusts  itself  by  gravity  to  the 
level  position  without  regard  to  the  angle  of  the  track  along 
which  it  runs,  we  run  out  and  up  and  up  and  in  again,  turning 
gradually  to  the  horizontal  direction  as  we  follow  the  curvature 
of  the  globe.  The  car  halts  at  an  hexagonal  parlor  under  the 
vertex,  which  is  ten  feet  high  by  100  feet  in  diameter. 

In  the  center  of  this  room  there  are  two  stairways,  one 
going  up  and  one  going  down.  The  one  going  down  terminates 
on  a  platform,  surrounded  by  a  railing,  from  which  one  can 
look  over  into  the  immensity  of  the  great  dome  and  the  hall  of 
the  sun  beneath.  Looked  at  from  this  point  that  central  orb 
which  illuminates  the  great  dome  seems  to  rest  on  the  sun  in 
the  hall  below,  and  is  scarcely  distinguishable  from  it.  It  is 
here  that  the  lights  must  be  attended  that  illuminate  that  cen- 
tral orb.  The  man  who  takes  care  of  them  moves  a  lever  on 
this  platform  and  the  rings  which  bear  the  lights  come  sliding 
up  the  rod  by  which  the  central  orb  is  suspended  until  they  are 
ranged  about  this  platform  where  the  lights  which  they  bear 
are  swung  in  and  attended  to,  then  the  lever  being  moved 
again,  down  they  go  to  their  places. 

We  will  now  moimt  the  stairs  leading  to  the  outside.  We 
emerge  in  the  center  of  an  open  pavilion,  about  which  is  a  circle 
of  twelve  stately  columns  and  a  light  railing,  with  a  gate  in 
each  interval  between  the  columns.  Outside  this  railing  in  all 
directions  swells  the  shining  expanse  of  the  great  globe. 
Mounted  by  the  side  of  each  of  the  twelve  columns  is  a  fine 
terrestrial  telescope  with  a  six-inch  object-glass,  through  which 
one  may  see  all  the  distant  landscape  at  pleasure. 


282  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

In  the  center  of  this  pavilion,  rising  above  the  opening 
of  the  stairway  by  which  we  have  entered,  is  a  winding  stair- 
way leading  to  the  base  of  the  dome  above.  Mounting  this  to 
the  chamber  within  the  frieze  that  r^sts  on  the  capitals  of  the 
columns  we  find  ourselves  in  a  small  chamber,  lighted  by  one 
incandescent  light,  from  which  twelve  doors  open  toward  the 
outside.  Passing  through  either  of  these  doors  we  find  our- 
selves in  a  chamber  which,  except  for  a  luminous  picture 
thrown  on  a  screen  which  it  contains,  is  dark.  This  picture, 
however,  is  a  perfect  reproduction  of  the  scene  which  may  be 
viewed  through  the  telescope  beneath.  Each  of  these  chambers 
is  a  camera  obscura  of  the  most  perfect  construction.  They 
communicate  with  each  other  through  doors  in  the  intervening 
walls  in  front  of  the  screens,  and  the  twelve  of  them  are  so  many 
eyes  on  the  retina  of  which  all  the  world  about  is  always  pic- 
tured and  may  if  desired  be  photographed  at  any  moment  with 
microscopic  nicety. 

Above  the  landing  in  the  center  of  this  camera  circle  is  a 
trap  door  manhole  opening  into  the  interior  of  the  dome  of  this 
observatory  in  which  is  stepped  the  foot  of  the  great  flagstaff, 
as  large  as  the  mainmast  of  a  ship  when  the  masts  of  ships  were 
the  largest,  which  rises  from  the  apex  of  the  dome  and  from 
which  flies  the  flag  when  it  is  desired  to  display  a  flag  on  this 
building;  it  is  run  up  through  a  wicket  beside  the  flagstafif  in 
the  crown  of  the  dome.  Higher  than  this  we  cannot  go.  We 
return  to  the  pavilion  of  the  observatory ;  its  diameter  is  seven- 
ty-five feet.  It  is  supported  on  continuations  of  the  steel  frame- 
work of  the  great  dome,  at  a  height  above  its  map  surface  just 
suflficient  to  permit  a  man  to  walk  erect  on  that  surface  under 
the  floor  of  the  observatory.  The  part  of  this  map  surface  cov- 
ered bv  the  observatory,  however,  represents  nothing  but  water, 
its  center  being  located  in  latitude  33  degrees  40  minutes  north. 


A  New  Utopian  Schoolhouse.  283 

which  is  the  same  as  the  latitude  of  this  building,  and  in  longi- 
tude 18  degrees  east  from  Greenwich.  Sicily,  southern  Italy, 
Greece,  and  a  part  of  northern  Africa,  are  near  enough  for  our 
inspection  from  the  pavilion,  and  one  cannot  fail  to  admire, 
and  can  scarcely  tire  of  examining,  the  niceties  of  the  modeling 
and  coloring  of  the  rugged  surface  of  Sicily  with  its  great  vol- 
cano of  Etna,  and  of  southern  Italy  with  Vesuvius,  and  Naples 
and  the  mountainous  coast  of  its  famous  bay,  and  the  islands 
lying  near.  The  excavations  of  ancient  Pompeii  are  visible, 
and  the  southern  Apennines  all  modeled  and  colored  with  ex- 
quisite precision,  and  Greece,  great  for  the  part  which  it  has 
played  in  the  world's  progress,  even  what  we  can  see  from  this 
pavilion  is  worth  coming  far  to  see. 

But  we  will  take  an  observation  car  and  make  an  excursion 
round  the  world,  in  twenty  minutes  if  we  wish,  though  we  shall 
find  it  profitable  to  take  more  time  than  that. 

These  observation  cars  run  on  steel  wire  cables  mounted 
on  stanchions  bolted  in  the  framework  of  the  dome  and  rising 
through  the  tile  that  constitutes  the  map.  These  cables,  and 
the  stanchions  that  support  them  are  too  slender  to  be  easily 
seen  from  the  ground  below,  but  they  are  strong  enough  to 
support  many  times  the  weight  of  the  car  with  as  many  pas- 
sengers as  it  can  carry.  The  cables  forming  the  tracks  lie  in 
parallel  pairs  and  the  cars  are  suspended  from  a  motor  appa- 
ratus that  is  hooked  over  them.  Thus  suspended  the  car  hangs 
level  whether  above  the  globe,  on  its  side  or  under  its  over- 
hanging swell. 

One  gets  a  better  sense  of  the  relative  magnitude  of  the 
regions  of  the  earth  by  viewing  the  whole  in  a  model  like  this, 
and  it  is  a  rare  pleasure  to  inspect  its  surface  modeled  so  per- 
fectly that  every  mountain  and  ravine  is  there  in  its  proper  form 
and  proportions.    Even  this  building  finds  its  place  on  this  map 


284  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

in  correct  proportions  in  a  model  nearly  an  inch  and  a  half 
high. 

It  is  as  if  we  had  been  maignified  into  giants  towering  to 
the  height  of  twenty  miles,  the  earth  remaining  as  it  is,  except- 
ing that  gravity,  instead  of  holding  us  on  its  surface,  is  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  way  trying  to  pull  us  ofif. 

Seen  from  the  ground  anywhere  about  the  foot  of  the 
hill  on  which  this  building  stands  this  globe  looks  exactly  as 
the  earth  itself  must  look  if  seen  from  a  distance  of  three  or 
four  times  its  own  diameter. 

But  our  car  is  on  its  way.  Its  course  is  guided  by  switches 
to  any  part  of  the  globe  we  may  wish  to  visit,  and  we  run  down 
its  northwestern  side  to  the  shores  of  the  polar  sea ;  thence  fol- 
lowing the  line  of  the  Rocky  mountains  and  the  Andes  from 
the  Arctic  ocean  to  Cape  Horn ;  crossing  the  Atlantic  now  to 
near  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  we  skirt  the  eastern  border  of 
Africa  to  near  the  equator;  now  crossing  the  Indian  ocean  we 
pass  over  Hindostan,  Burmah  and  China ;  sweeping  around 
north  to  the  pole,  we  return  by  the  way  of  the  North  Cape, 
the  Scandinavian  peninsula,  the  British  islands,  and  thence  by 
way  of  France  and  Italy  to  our  rendezvous  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean sea.    We  have  had  a  great  excursion,  truly. 


A  Journey — Nczu  Utopia  to  Mount  Ceres.  285 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

It  is  one  o'clock  p.  m.  We  are  again  on  the  rail,  travel- 
ing over  the  desert  road  that  was  built  during  that  first  hurry 
season  to  bring  the  army  down  from  Fort  Goodwill  to  winter 
in  the  milder  climate  of  southern  California. 

Immediately  after  leaving  the  New  Utopia  station  we  pass 
through  the  great  flue.  The  altitude  where  the  railway  crosses 
it  is  only  1.800  feet,  nevertheless  a  perceptible  chill  and  damp- 
ness creeps  into  the  car  during  the  ten  minutes  of  our  transit. 
Emerging  on  the  west  side  of  the  flue  we  are  at  once  among  the 
orange  orchards  and  gardens  of  Redlands  and  San  Bernardino. 
Through  these,  with  a  momentary  stop  at  each  of  these  towns, 
we  continue  for  two  hours ;  then  bending  around  the  western 
end  of  the  San  Bernardino  range  we  push  out  into  the  plain 
that  was  the  great  Mohave  desert.  Here  with  the  great  glacier 
shining  high  and  white  on  our  right  and  behind  us,  for  more 
than  a  hundred  miles  we  run  through  wheat  fields  and  meadows 
that  are  now  watered  from  that  glacier. 

There  are  no  fields  more  fertile  than  these  and  none  on 
which  the  crop  is  more  sure,  all  the  conditions  on  which  it  de- 
pends being  absolutely  under  control.  All  this  region  is,  of 
course,  cultivated  under  the  power  system,  the  power  imme-|  y*-- 
diately  used  being  electricity  derived  from  liquid  air  engines 
instead  of  from  water  power  as  originally  used  for  that  purpose. 
Indeed,  water  power  suflficient  for  this  purpose  could  not  have 
been  had  here,  but  when  the  heat  of  the  earth  will  move  our 
machinery  it  is  even  cheaper  than  water  power,  besides  being 
always  on  hand  when  wanted.  The  labor  that  would  have  been 
necessary  to  farm  this  Mohave  desert  without  the  liquid  air 


286  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

power,  even  if  steam  power  had  been  used  in  its  stead,  would 
have  been  many  times  greater  than  it  is. 

As  the  sun  is  sinking  toward  the  western  horizon  we  draw 
near  the  mountains  again,  and  soon  we  come  to  the  town  of 
Vitre. 

This  is  a  pleasant  little  town  consisting  of  four  Fort  Good- 
will blocks,  that  is  just  a  mile  square ;  its  terrace  overlooking 
the  salt  lake  of  southern  California  on  the  east  and  its  mountain 
spur  behind  it  on  the  west,  have  already  been  described,  but  it  is 
all  embowered  in  trees  now  and  its  gardens  and  its  parks  over- 
spread the  rugged  valley  toward  the  northwest,  in  which  the 
water  supply  of  the  town  is  gathered. 

The  glass  factory  is  here  yet.  Excepting  its  own  services, 
that  is  the  only  industry  of  the  town ;  it  produces  most  of  the 
plate  glass  used  west  of  the  Mississippi,  besides  a  hundred 
other  forms  of  glassware,  but  it  has  never  had  another  order 
like  that  for  glass  to  enclose  the  great  flue,  nor  is  it  likely  to 
have  another  such,  hence  the  glass  works  are  not  nearly  so 
large  as  they  were  when  first  established. 

Night  closes  in  on  us  here,  and  we  retire  to  our  sleepers. 

We  pass  in  the  night  two  extensive  wheat  districts ;  the 
first,  in  Nevada,  which  we  enter  only  about  forty  miles  north  of 
Vitre,  covers  the  ground  formerly  known  as  the  Amargosa 
and  Ralston  deserts. 

The  second  is  in  southwestern  Utah  in  the  region  shown 
on  the  old  maps  as  Escalante  valley.  Neither  of  these  districts 
were  irrigable  to  such  a  degree  as  to  fit  them  for  agriculture 
until  the  increased  precipitation  occurred  after  the  completion 
of  the  great  flue  and  the  glaciation  of  the  San  Bernardino 
heights.  Both  of  these  districts  are  cultivated  by  forces  from 
Mount  Ceres,  camping  temporarily  in  their  vicinity;  they  are 


A  Journey — New  Utopia  to  Mount  Ceres.  287 

known  as  wheat  districts,  but,  of  course,  wheat  is  alternated 
with  other  crops  in  these  districts  as  elsewhere. 

In  this  great  scale  farmincy,  by  the  commonwealth,  there 
are  many  advantages  besides  the  application  of  power  ma- 
chinery which  were  entirely  out  of  the  reach  of  the  old  style 
individual  farmer,  one  of  which  is  the  ability  successfully  to 
contend  with  insect  pests.  An  example  of  this  occurred  in  the 
season  when  the  southern  Nevada  tract  was  first  made  ready 
for  cultivation.  The  Hessian  fly  had  been  detected  in  the  Fort 
Goodwill  wheat  fields  the  previous  fall,  and  again  in  the  spring 
the  little  pest  was  found  plying  his  vocation  with  his  usual 
industry.  They  were  not  numerous  enough  as  yet  to  damage 
the  crop  much,  but  what  their  presence  meant  was  understood 
well  enough,  and  in  recognition  of  the  presence  of  the  Hes- 
sian fly  not  an  acre  of  wheat  was  sown  that  year  nor  the  year 
following  in  all  the  Fort  Goodwill  district,  and  every  other 
crop  in  which  the  pest  could  live  was  plowed  und,er  or  re- 
mained unsown  while  the  ground  was  devoted  to  cultivated 
crops.  Meanwhile  the  full  crop  of  wheat  was  grown  in  the  new 
territory. 

When  after  two  years  of  this  treatment  250  square  miles  of 
wheat  were  again  sown  in  the  Fort  Goodwill  district  the  fields 
were  as  free  from  the  pest  as  when  they  were  first  reclaimed 
from  the  desert. 

If  the  old  time  farmer  could  have  plowed  up  his  pest- 
ridden  fields  and  put  two  or  three  hundred  miles  between  them 
and  the  nearest  crop  that  could  harbor  the  pest,  he  might  have 
exterminated  the  Hessian  fly  and  the  wheat  midge  and  all 
other  insect  pests  that  brought  his  labors  to  naught,  but  with 
his  neighbor's  wheat  field  just  over  the  fence  from  his  own,  no 
matter  how  faithfully  he  might  endeavor  to  cut  ofi.  the  ene- 


288  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

mies'  supplies,  the  foe  was  always  ready  for  the  first  new  crop 
that  he  might  sow. 

When  we  renew  our  observations  in  the  morning  we  are 
coursing  swiftly  through  the  valleys  and  passes  of  the  Wah- 
satch  mountains.  But  how  the  region  has  changed  from  what 
it  was  when  the  road  was  built  thirty-three  years  ago.  Then 
it  was  savage  in  its  desolation,  in  every  open  valley  or  long 
slope  one  might  have  watched  the  course  of  a  jack  rabbit  as 
he  skipped  away,  until  he  vanished  in  the  far  distance,  but  now 
everywhere  there  is  a  healthy  young  forest  growth.  The 
rocky  summits  of  the  peaks,  and  here  and  there  a  vertical  cliff 
or  a  jutting  crag,  lift  their  rugged  forms  grandly  above  the 
foliage,  but  all  the  slopes  are  covered  with  trees  and  all  the 
valleys  are  filled  with  the  forest.  We  notice  the  foresters'  sup- 
ply stations  as  we  pass,  but  all  this  region  is  without  permanent 
inhabitants.  Soon  we  enter  the  Utah  central,  or  Mount  Ceres, 
irrigated  district,  and  note  its  long  aqueducts  of  stone  stretch- 
ing away  in  the  distance ;  and  its  power  sheds,  and  its  grain 
fields  and  its  meadows,  and  its  great  orchards  of  peaches  and 
pears,  and  its  vineyards,  for  here  it  is  that  all  the  fruits  of  the 
middle  latitudes  thrive  best.  The  dailv  trains,  with  cars  cooled 
by  liquid  air,  deliver  even  the  most  perishable  of  fruits  at  the 
N*^'  catacombs  of  New  Utopia  or  the  cold  storage  vaults  of  Fort 
Goodwill,  or  in  any  other  town,  in  perfect  condition. 

After  sixty  miles  of  this  region  our  train  sweeps  out  on 
a  magnificent  bridge  of  steel,  crossing  the  Green  River  canyon, 
then  after  following  up  the  canyon  for  a  short  distance  on  its 
eastern  side  and  bending  round  a  curve  toward  the  right  it 
stops  in  the  station  of  Mount  Ceres. 

From  the  railway  station  of  Alount  Ceres,  or  from  the 
dairy  and  stock  district  of  the  town,  which  is  located  a  little 
further  on  between  the  railwav  track  and  the  foot  of  the  mesa. 


A  Journey— New  Utopia  to  Mount  Ceres.  289 

we  ascend  to  the  city  by  an  inclined  plane  railway.  The  de- 
clivity bordering  the  mesa  is  covered  with  trees  and  vines  and 
shrubbery  with  here  and  there  a  grassy  terrace,  all  of  which 
are  watered  according  to  their  need,  from  above. 

The  plan  of  the  city  is  essentially  like  that  of  Fort  Good- 
will, and  it  is  built  on  a  shoulder  of  the  mesa,  which  consti- 
tutes a  terrace  bordered  above  by  a  second  escarpment  rising 
to  the  general  level  of  the  plateau,  about  a  hundred  feet  higher. 

We  halt  here  especially  to  view  the  works  by  which  water 
is  supplied  to  the  city  and  to  the  great  mesa  that  was  chosen 
for  its  site,  making  our  home  while  we  stay  in  one  of  the  fine 
hotels  about  half  a  mile  back  from  the  head  of  the  incline  by 
which  we  entered  the  city. 

We  have  chosen  for  our  stopping  place  one  of  the  most 
lofty  edifices  in  Mount  Ceres  in  order  that  we  may  have  the 
benefit  of  an  unobstructed  view  of  the  landscape  lying  about  the 
city. 

We  mention  this  object  to  the  custodian  of  the  building, 
and  ascending  the  elevator,  we  are  conducted  to  a  room  oc- 
cupying a  sort  of  turt-et  or  tower  that  forms  a  picturesque  fea- 
ture in  the  architecture  of  the  hotel. 

It  is  on  the  sixth  floor,  and  opens  on  one  side,  on  a  roof 
bower,  and  on  the  other  three  sides  by  balcony  windows  di- 
rectly to  the  distant  landscape.  It  has  the  usual  gas  fireplace 
and  every  furnishing  that  could  promote  comfort. 

From  our  windows  the  geometrical  plan  of  the  adjacent 
blocks  is  spread  out  before  us,  and  among  the  trees  that  are 
grouped  in  the  garden  plots  and  border  the  roadways  the 
pretty  houses  are  peeping  through,  and  the  groves  and  shrub- 
bery and  lawns  in  the  angle  squares,  enlivened  with  bright 
beds  of  flowers,  and  the  domes  and  towers  and  colonnades  of 
the  public  buildings  rising  here  and  there  above  the  foliage, 


290  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

make  a  picture  very  pleasant  to  the  eye.  But  it  is  the  back- 
ground of  the  picture,  the  distant  landscape,  that  is  noteworthy 
and  unique. 

Standing-  on  the  balcony  of  one  of  our  north  windows  we 
see  spread  before  us,  and  stretching  away  to  the  eastward  until 
it  blends  with  the  pale  blue  mountains  of  Colorado  a  hundred 
miles  away,  the  eastern  division  of  the  Mount  Ceres  agricul- 
tural district.  Its  nearer  part  is  not  too  distant  to  permit  us 
to  see  the  lines  of  power  sheds  that  separate  it  into  fields  half  a 
mile  wide ;  a  number  of  the  stone  aqueducts  are  also  visible  in 
a  long  succession  of  arches  stretching  across  the  country  as 
the  Romans  built  aqueducts  of  old.  Behind  all  this  rises  the 
dark  wall  of  the  Roan  Clifi'  mountains  with  their  undulating 
sky  line,  terminating  directly  north  of  us  in  a  deep  notch 
through  which  the  Green  River  canyon  comes  down  from  the 
north.  From  this  gap  across  the  plain,  toward  us  and  passing 
to  the  left,  lies  the  dark  chasm  of  that  canyon  now  bordered 
with  forests,  and  beyond  this  chasm  toward  the  west  lies  the 
western  division  of  the  agricultural  district,  more  broken  to  the 
eye  by  ravine,  mountain  and  mesa  than  the  eastern  division,  but 
clothed  in  verdure  everywhere.  On  the  western  side  of  the  gap 
through  which  the  canyon  creeps,  the  mountain  wall  rises  steep 
to  an  altitude  two  thousand  feet  greater  than  that  attained  by 
the  Roan  Cliff  mountains  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  gap ;  it  is 
under  that  steep  declivity  that  the  tunneled  canal  comes  down, 
carrying  the  waters  of  the  Green  river  from  the  Fort  Goodwill 
district. 

Through  that  gap,  in  the  dim  azure  distance,  another 
mountain  peak  is  seen.  That  is  Emmons  peak,  the  loftiest 
of  the  Uintahs,  which  lies  beyond  Fort  Goodwill  about  a  hun- 
dred and  forty  miles  away. 


292 


Perfecting  the  Earth. 


J&unf^  Ceres 


A  Journey — Nczu  Utopia  to  Mount  Ceres.  293 

Taking  our  position  now  at  an  eastern  window  the  ex- 
panse of  the  eastern  corn  fields,  now  at  our  left,  stretches  away 
as  before.  Directly  before  us  and  toward  the  right,  the  green 
park  on  the  mesa  rises  above  the  buildings  and  groves  of  the 
city,  while  a  massive  swell  of  the  Rocky  mountains  sixty  miles 
away  in  Colorado  forms  a  dark  purple  background  to  the 
whole.  To  the  right  of  this  a  nearer  mountain  mass  looms  up, 
capped  by  four  lofty  peaks  which  stand  ranged  like  saw  teeth 
against  the  sky  from  the  west  to  the  southwest ;  the  northern- 
most of  these  is  Mount  Waas.  reaching  the  height  of  12,500 
feet,  the  second  is  Mount  Tomasak,  12,270  feet  high  ;  the  third 
is  Mount  Peale.  12.100  feet  high  ;  the  fourth  Mount  Tukuhni- 
kivatz,  10,815  feet.  These  peaks  are  the  cresting  on  the  roof  on 
which  the  water  supply  of  Mount  Ceres  is  gathered ;  the  swell 
from  which  they  rise  abuts  close  on  the  Grand  River  canyon ; 
the  distance  of  the  peaks  from  Mount  Ceres  varies  from  forty 
to  fifty  miles ;  they  look  as  if  one  might  walk  to  them  before 
breakfast,  but  anyone  who  should  try  it  would  find  that  he  had 
more  than  a  day's  work  before  him,  even  if  the  canyon  did 
not  interpose  its  impassable  barrier. 

To  the  southward  of  this  group  of  great  peaks  at  about 
double  the  distance  is  another  group  with  four  more  peaks 
ranged  along  in  order ;  these  are  the  Abajo  (lower)  mountains. 
Still  farther  Avest  and  curving  up  toward  the  north,  at  about  the 
same  distance  as  the  Abajo  mountains,  another  range  of  four 
great  peaks  notch  the  horizon.  These  lie  west  of  the  great 
Colorado  canyon,  and  northward  from  these,  behind  the  forest- 
clad  swells  of  the  nearer  uplands,  the  peaks  of  the  Wahsatch 
range  break  the  sky  line  with  a  dim  undulating  band  of  azure. 

Mount  Ceres,  as  its  name  implies,  is  an  agricultural  city 
to  a  greater  extent  than  is  Fort  Goodwill.    It  is  from  here  that^ — 
the  forces  go  out  to  cultivate  and  harvest  the  wheat  and  the 


294  Perfectincr  the  Earth. 

corn  fields  on  the  great  irrigated  plains  from  California  to 
^  Colorado.  In  the  dairy  and  live  stock  lines  the  two  cities,  Fort 
^  Goodwill  and  Mount  Ceres,  are  about  equal,  these  industries 
being  essentially  parts  of  the  public  service  tributary  to  the 
city  to  which  they  belong,  but  Fort  Goodwill,  from  its  more 
northern  latitude,  its  elevation,  its  accessibility,  and  its  water 
power,  is  better  adapted  to  iron  works  and  general  manufac- 
tures, while  Mount  Ceres  is  more  central  to  the  irrigated  dis- 
tricts of  the  arid  lands  as  a  whole,  and  was  therefore  chosen 
as  the  center  of  the  agricultural  operations  by  which  the  eight 
millions  of  people  who'  now  inhabit  the  arid  lands  are  fed. 

The  next  morning  after  our  arrival  in  Mount  Ceres  we 
take  an  automobile  and  set  out  to  see  the  works  by  which  the 
city  and  plateau  are  watered.  Here,  of  course,  except  hydrants 
in  their  proper  places  of  all  sizes  for  all  uses,  there  is  nothing 
of  the  waterworks  to  be  seen. 

Our  road  leads  toward  the  southeast.  Like  all  completed 
highways  in  this  new  commonwealth,  it  is  a  well  paved  avenue 
\  Vy  with  its  adjacent  grounds  artistically  kept  in  order.  Our  car- 
riage bowls  along  through  the  fair  city  and  up  the  grade  to  the 
upper  plateau  ;  thence  through  three  miles  of  landscape  garden, 
followed  by  orchard  and  vineyard  and  forest  and  meadow  in 
pleasing  alternation  for  twelve  miles,  before  there  is  anything 
to  be  seen  pertaining  to  the  waterworks  excepting  that  we 
know  that  every  green  thing  in  sight  is  dependent  on  those 
hidden  waterworks  for  its  life. 

But  now  we  are  in  the  center  of  the  mesa,  and  here  the 
land  reaches  the  highest  level  attained  anywhere  on  its  face. 
On  this  swell  about  two  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
city  a  reservoir  has  been  built  a  mile  square,  retaining  the  water 
enclosed  to  the  depth  of  45  feet. 


A  Journey — New  Utopia  to  Mount  Ceres.  296 

About  the  border  of  this  reservoir  is  a  terraced  embank- 
ment, which  is  all  we  sec  of  it  as  we  approach  at  its  northwest 
corner.  Here,  while  the  main  highway  divides,  one  branch 
continuing  southward  praallel  to  the  foot  of  the  embankment 
and  another  turning-  eastward,  Hkewise  parallel  to  the  em- 
bankment, there  is  a  grade  leading  up  to  the  summit,  up  which 
we  guide  our  vehicle  and  continue  our  course  along  the  boule- 
vard that  we  find  on  the  top  of  the  terrace.  Here  we  have  the 
lake-like  expanse  of  the  water  on  our  left  and  the  young  forest 
beneath  us  on  our  right,  while  the  way  is  bordered  with  the 
choicest  flowers  on  either  hand. 

For  a  mile  and  a  half  we  follow  this  boulevard  to  the 
middle  of  the  southern  side  of  the  reservoir,  at  which  point  a 
combined  stone  aqueduct  and  bridge  abuts  on  our  embankment 
leading  in  from  the  south.  Our  boulevard,  curving  in  from 
each  side,  continues  on  the  same  level  over  this  bridge ;  but 
here  we  may  pause  and  see  the  waterway  beneath  the  pave- 
ment of  the  highway.  This  we  find  consists  not  of  an  open  canal 
like  those  of  the  irrigating  aqueducts,  nor  yet  of  a  closed  one, 
but  of  two  iron  water  mains  lying  side  by  side,  each  seven  feet 
in  diameter.  • 

Across  the  mesa  from  the  south  as  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach  this  aqueduct  and  bridge  extends,  built  on  graceful  stone 
arches,  as  of  old  the  Romans  built  their  aqueducts,  but  with 
more  pains  taken  in  its  architectural  embellishments  than  the 
Romans  ever  took  with  any  aqueduct  of  theirs.  We  continue 
our  journey  over  this  bridge  fifteen  miles  in  a  straight  line  and 
on  one  continuous  level.  As  we  pass  over  the  gently  undulat- 
ing surface  of  the  mesa  our  height  above  the  ground  varies,  now 
it  is  nearly  a  hundred  feet.  Yonder  on  the  swell  perhaps  not 
more  than  twenty ;  at  two  places,  where  the  level  of  the  bridge 
approaches  that  of  the  ground,  there  are  cross  roads  connect- 
ing with  the  bridge. 


V 


I 


296  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

The  country  here  consists  of  ahernating-  forest  and  grass- 
land, forest  bordering  the  mesa  also,  and  clothing  its  escarp- 
ment wherever  trees  can  find  a  foothold.  These  grasslands  are 
mostly  used  for  sheep  pasturage. 

The  gentle  breeze  that  fans  us  as  we  ride  along  the  bridge 
is  invigorating;  the  landscape  spreads  before  us  and  about  us 
in  magnificence,  and  that  the  enjoyment  of  our  ride  may  be 
prolonged  we  so  moderate  the  speed  of  our  vehicle  that  an 
hour  is  consumed  in  traversing  this  fifteen-mile  straight  reach 
of  our  bridge,  then  we  reach  a  point  where  it  bends  about  thirty 
degrees  to  the  eastward  and  changes  from  stone  to  steel.  We 
are  now  approaching  the  edge  of  the  mesa  and  as  we  do  so 
the  land  sinks  away  from  our  level  until  we  are  from  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  to  two  hundred  feet  above  its  surface.  Now  we 
reach  that  edge  and  our  bridge  assumes  the  cantilever  type, 
while,  as  we  run  out  over  the  canyon,  the  land  below  us  sinks 
away  to  dizzy  depths.  We  follow  our  aerial  highway  across 
the  canyon  at  a  height,  one  would  think,  to  make  an  eagle's 
head  reel,  but  with  practice  one  gets  used  to  viewing  distance 
in  the  vertical  direction  as  well  as  in  the  horizontal. 

The  supporting  towers  of  this  bridge  that  rise  from  the 
bottom  of  the  canyon  reach  the  height  of  two  thousand  feet ;  on 
either  side  there  are  others  that  have  their  bases  at  higher 
levels,  but  even  these  tower  to  heights  greater  than  was  attafned 
by  any  bridge  previously  built. 

There  are  eight  miles  of  this  steel  bridge  from  the  angle 
on  the  mesa  where  it  begins,  to  where  we  touch  ground  again 
on  the  other  side  of  the  canyon.  Where  we  reach  terra  firma 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  can\  on  there  is  a  tributary  ravine  on  our 
left  coming  down  from  the  plateau  between  the  upper  and  lower 
mountain  groups.  The  acqueduct  along  the  course  of  this 
ravine  assumes  the  type   of  a  covered  canal  with   different 


A  Journey — New  Utopia  to  Mount  Ceres.  297 

levels,  the  water  in  which  is  controlled  by  automatic  valvei  ^ 
gates,  being  finally  admitted  to  the  great  conduit  pipes  on  the 
bridge  under  the  pressure  of  fifty  feet  head.  Our  road  rises 
two  or  three  hundred  feet  in  the  five  miles  of  its  course  parallel 
to  this  ravine,  then  we  come  to  one  of  the  great  stone  dams  so 
characteristic  of  the  hydraulic  operations  of  the  army  during  its 
career  of  usefulness.  This  dam  lies  across  the  valley  from 
which  the  ravine  we  have  been  following  originates.  Its  height 
is  250  feet,  and  it  is  three-quarters  of  a  mile  long.  Above,  the 
valley  spreads  out  to  a  width  of  from  three  to  five  miles  and  to 
the  distance  of  ten  miles  back  it  now  forms  a  lake. 

Before  these  works  were  built  this  valley  and  all  the  lands 
adjacent  were  as  dry  as  Sahara ;  even  the  sage  brush  and  the 
cactus  were  abnormally  scarce  here.  Whenever  any  rain  fell 
in  this  region  the  baked  and  naked  earth  shed  it  like  a  roof, 
and  it  ran  off  into  the  ravines  and  canyons  all  about,  leaving  the 
land  as  dry  as  before.  To  collect  these  waters,  together  with 
that  derived  from  the  melting  snow  on  the  mountain  tops, 
canals  were  constructed  girdling  the  northern  mountain  group 
and  leading  into  the  reservoir  lake  which  had  been  prepared 
to  receive  them. 

There  are  advantages  in  ditching  on  a  mountain  side,  for 
there  by  properly  laying  out  your  course,  with  very  slight 
changes  in  the  direction  of  your  ditch,  you  can  make  it  so  that 
the  water  will  run  either  way ;  you  can  gather  the  drainage  from 
all  the  higher  levels  and  conduct  it  where  you  please.  Here  in 
effect  eave  troughs  were  laid  all  about  the  900  square  miles 
and  more  of  roof,  of  which  the  four  great  peaks  of  the  northern 
group  are  pinnacles  and  cresting,  while  the  valley  above  the 
newly-built  dam  constituted  a  cistern  to  receive  the  water 
which  these  eave  troughs  would  collect.  These  collecting 
canals,  however,  were  not  simple  ditches ;  besides  being  built  in 


298  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

the  most  substantial  manner  that  engineering  science  could 
devise,  in  each  descending  valley  where  it  was  possible  to  do 
so  auxiliary  reservoirs  and  ponds  were  constructed  on  them ; 
these  when  once  filled  served  to  equalize  the  flow  and  make  it 
constant,  at  the  same  time  nearly  all  the  sediment  washed 
down  from  the  higher  slopes  is  deposited  in  these  auxiliary 
ponds  and  the  water  comes  to  the  main  reservoir  transparent 
and  pure. 

Similar  collecting  canals  were  at  the  same  time  con- 
structed on  the  south  side  of  this  reservoir  to  collect  the  water 
that  might  fall  on  the  higher  plateaus  in  that  direction  and  on 
the  northern  slopes  of  the  Abajo  mountains,  in  which  those 
plateaus  terminate.  This  added  a  thousand  square  miles  more 
to  the  roof  that  collects  water  for  this  cistern,  and  though  as 
arid  as  any  roof,  the  combined  1,900  square  miles  of  water  shed 
proved  ample  to  fill  the  reservoir  and  provide  a  very  good 
outflow  the  next  season  after  the  works  were  constructed. 
After  the  change  of  climate  caused  by  the  great  flue  and  the 
glacier  of  San  Bernardino,  the  precipitation  on  these  heights 
became  much  more  copious  and  more  frequent,  then  these 
slopes  and  plateaus  also  were  planted  to  forest  trees,  and  now, 
here  as  elsewhere,  much  of  the  water  that  formerly  ran  off 
the  earth,  as  it  would  run  off  a  roof,  is  retained  by  the  roots  and 
leaves  to  percolate  into  the  earth,  some  of  it  to  reappear  in 
springs,  and  to  be  delivered  with  a  steadier  flow  free  from  the 
mud  and  gravel  that  formerly  were  carried  in  the  torrents. 

Here,  as  everywhere  now,  the  desolation  of  the  desert  has 
disappeared,  the  young  forest  clothes  the  mountain  sides  as 
with  a  garment,  while  the  new  lake  at  our  feet  vitalizes  the 
great  mesa  yonder  and  supplies  the  city  of  Mount  Ceres  with 
water  enough  so  that  fountains  may  gush  at  every  doorstep 
and  rivulets  laugh  by  every  wayside. 


Fort  Goodzuill  A^ain.  299 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 


Fort  Goodwill  and  Momit  Ceres  are  more  densely  peopled 
than  New  Utopia,  though  there  are  in  New  Utopia  more  peo- 
ple to  theTiouse  than  in  either  of  them.  In  New  Utopia  the 
great  edifices  admitting  grandeur  of  architecture,  and  contain- 
ing many  apartments,  predominate,  while  small  individual 
houses  are  interspersed  for  variety.  In  Fort  Goodwill  and 
Alount  Ceres  small  private  houses  predominate  with  large  pub- 
lic buildings  regularly  distributed  among  them,  and  with  occa- 
sional blocks  of  apartments  thrown  in  for  variety. 

The  plan  of  Fort  Goodwill  and  Mount  Ceres  is  gQpmetri-  ^^^ 
cajL^its  purpose  being  to  group  together  as  many  residence  lots 
as  possible  on  a  given  area,  while  making  those  lots  ample  for 
lawns  and  flower  gardens,  for  shade  and  sunshine,  and  at  the 
same  time  providing  the  most  direct  lines  of  passage  possible 
in  every  direction. 

The  plan  of  New  Utopia  is  esthetical ;  essentially  the  city 
is  a  park,  the  buildings  being  worked^iff^vith  prime  reference 
to  preserving  its  beauty  as  a  park,  while  furnishing  all  possible 
conveniences  to  their  inhabitants.  Primarily  Fort  Goodwill 
and  Mount  Ceres  are  cities,  the  park  features  of  their  resi- 
dence portions  being  secondary,  and  their  special  parks  de- 
tached. 

The  cities  are  for  different  purposes  and  for  dilTerent  V 
classes  of  people.  Fort  Goodwill  and  Mount  Ceres  are  indus- 
trial cities,  their  people  are  mostly  under  fifty  years  of  age, 
are  encouraged  to  be  householders,  and  usually  have  families 
of  the  normal  size.  Children  need  a  home  all  their  own,  with 
direct  access  to  the  earth.    An  hotel  or  a  block  of  flats  is  no  fit 


300  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

place  for  them ;  but  with  the  veterans  retired  at  fifty  it  is  differ- 
ent ;  their  children  have  usually  reached  maturity  and  have 
homes  of  their  own ;  the  old  people  need  the  closer  associ- 
ation with  their  neiohbors,  which  a  well-appointed  hotel  or 
block  of  apartments  permits.  New  Utopia  is  chiefly  for  this 
class. 

No  one  is  required  to  leave  the  scenes  of  his  active  life 

/"^on  reaching-  the  age  of  retirement  unless  he  wishes  to  do  so, 

but  the  privilege  is  open  for  such  veterans  among  the  citizen 

tenantry  to  make  their  homes  in  New  Utopia  if  they  so  desire. 

Those  in  active  life  are  held  subject  to  transfer  to  other 
localities  if  the  needs  of  the  service  require  such  transfer,  but 
in  practice  such  transfers  are  always  made  by  volunteers. 

And  yet  Fort  Goodwill  and  Mount  Ceres  are  pleasant 
.  /cities  in  which  to  live.  Their  houses  though  small  are  all  artis- 
tic ;  well  tended  roses  and  flowers  of  many  kinds  bloom  about 
the  porches.  All  have  ample  lawns  and  space  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  flowers  according  to  their  fancy,  and  all  front  on  streets 
that  are  park  avenues,  with  well  shaded  lawns  and  no  fences. 
Groves*  of  trees  growing  on  the  open  corners  in  the  varied 
beauties  of  many  species  peep  over  the  smaller  houses,  and 
offer  most  inviting  shade  in  the  angle  squares  of  the  blocks  and 
at  the  intersections  of  the  streets  and  avenues.  The  great  pub- 
lic halls  at  the  corners  of  the  blocks  lift  their  columns,  their 
domes  and  their  towers,  over  and  among  the  graceful  tracery 
and  waving  branches  of  trees  chosen  of  such  kinds  as  will  best 
adorn  the  place  where  each  is  planted. 

The  parks  arc  more  forest  than  glade ;  of  clipped  lawns 
and  groups  of  shrubbery  and  trees  trimmed  with  artful  pre- 
cision, of  nature  combed  out  of  all  resemblance  to  herself,  one 
grows  tired,  but  of  the  forest  and  nature  uncombed  one  never 
tires. 


Fort  Goodwill  Again.  301 

The  long  range  beauty  of  the  Fort  Goodwill  landscape, 
the  purple  and  the  azure  of  the  distant  mountains,  the  varied 
outlines  of  the  peaks  against  the  sky,  the  swelling  shoulders  of 
the  nearer  hills,  the  clififs  and  the  terraces,  all  these  remain  as 
they  were.  Their  changes,  for  all  things  change,  are  of  the 
aeons  of  eternity,  not  of  the  years  of  man  ;  to  man  these  greater 
features  of  the  landscape  are  as  if  they  were  eternal,  for  they 
are  of  the  mountains  and  the  amosphere,  but  the  desolation 
that  once  spread  over  the  foreground  has  departed. 

How  desolate  is  a  treeless  land !  Buildings  most  perfect 
in  their  architecture  are  dreary  and  naked  and  tiresome  until 
clothed  and  veiled  with  trees. 

How  beautiful  a  thing  is  a  tree !  How  surpassingly  full  of 
beauty  is  a  forest,  where  nature,  while  pruned  with  a  loving 
hand,  is  not  restrained  with  too  tight  a  rein  nor  combed  too 
smooth  !  His  eyes  have  not  been  opened  who  cannot  feel  the 
sentiment  so  beautifully  expressed  by  Francis  Bourdillon : 

"O'er  land  and  sea  I'd  travelled  wide. 
My  thought  the  earth  could  span. 
But  wearily  I  turned  and  cried 
O  little  world  of  man  ! 

"I  wandered  by  a  green  wood  side 
The  distance  of  a  rod. 
Mine  eyes  were  opened  and  I  cried, 
O  mighty  world  of  God !" 

The  eyes  of  these  people  have  been  opened ;  the  flowers  of 
the  field  and  the  wild  things  of  the  wood  have  come  to  share 
their  loving  regard,  and  the  pretty  creatures  of  the  forest  have 
grown  tame.  When  the  school  children  play  in  the  groves  the 
squirrels  hop  about  among  them,  or,  with  their  tails  curled  over 
their  backs  in  Hogarth's  line  of  beauty,  they  sit  up  on  their 
haunches  before  the  children  to  beg  for  food ;  and  they  seldom 


302  ^         Perfecting  the  Earth. 

ask  in  vain,  for  every  child  has  learned  to  carry  a  cracker  or 
two  in  his  pocket  to  feed  them,  and  there  isn't  a  child  among 
them  that  would  betray  the  confidence  of  a  squirrel  or  hurt  it 
for  anything  in  the  world. 

"He  prayeth  well  who  loveth  well  both  man  and  bird  and  beast, 
He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best  all  things  both  great  and 

small. 
For  the  dear  God  that  loveth  us,  he  made  and  loveth  all." 

And  that  is  the  kind  of  religion  in  which  the  people  of 
Fort  Goodwill  are  training  their  children. 

But  it  is  to  spy  out  the  land  that  we  are  come,  and  we  will 
take  an  excursion  to  the  canyon  and  thence  down  that  mighty 
gorge  until  we  can  turn  and  come  back  by  another  way  from 
that  by  which  we  go. 

There  are  but  two  of  us  for  the  trip,  you  the  reader,  and  I 
the  writer.  For  our  conveyance  we  take  light,  single,  motor 
cycles  ;  starting  in  the  early  morning  while  yet  the  dew  sparkles 
on  the  grass  and  the  flowers  and  the  robins  are  singing  their 
morning  song. 

This  is  not  a  fashionable  hour,  but  if  any  unfortunate  has 
never  experienced  the  pleasure  which  the  freshness  of  the  day's 
awakening  in  early  summer  has  to  give  him,  let  him  try  it, 
better  at  an  even  earlier  hour,  before  the  sunrise,  and  feel  the 
thrill,  the  exhilaration,  the  delight  with  which  nature  awaken- 
ing from  sleep  will  inspire  him. 

Our  way  lies  through  the  southeast  avenue.  Three  and  a 
half  miles  from  the  city  hall  our  course  is  through  the  city. 
The  rising  sun  low  down  on  our  left  sends  long,  slanting  beams 
of  light  through  the  openings  among  the  trees  and  shrubbery 
and  houses  across  the  perfect  pavement.    These  morning  rays 


Fort  Goodzvill  Again.  303 

illuminating-  the  clustered  proves  and  columned  porches  on  our 
right  make  the  festooned  roses  and  the  iris  and  the  daffodils, 
the  honeysuckle,  the  clematis  and  the  ampelopsis  to  sparkle 
and  g^litter  with  a  myriad  diamonds  of  dew,  and  the  odor  of 
pinks  mingled  with  roses  permeates  the  air  of  this  glorious 
June  morning-,  while  our  motor  cycles,  light  but  strong,  cours- 
ing swiftly  side  by  side  and  curving  obedient  to  the  slightest 
impulse,  nil  us  with  a  sense  of  freedom  and  of  power.  Ten 
minutes  carry  us  to  the  border  park  which  encircles  the  city  on 
its  southern  or  lower  side.  Here  the  landscape  gardener's  art 
finds  free  play,  with  all  the  resources  of  nature,  from  the  largest 
trees  of  the  forest  to  wild  flowers  and  the  grass  for  its  material. 

Three-quarters  of  a  mile  diagonally  across  the  park  brings 
us  to  the  descent  from  the  terrace,  which  we  remember  coin- 
cides with  the  altitude  of  6,000  feet  above  the  sea.  To 
the  slope  of  the  lower  plain  the  descent  is  250  feet,  which  the 
grade  of  the  avenue  distributes  through  half  a  mile.  This  de- 
clivity is  included  in  the  border  park. 

At  its  foot  we  come  to  the  high  level  irrigating  canal  from 
which  the  orchards  are  irrigated,  and  crossing  this  channel  we 
are  in  the  orchards.  Here  apple  trees,  in  prime  vigor,  broad 
spreading  but  well  trinmied  and  clean  cultivated,  cover  the 
earth  until  their  branches  almost  meet.  The  young  apples  at 
this  season  we  cannot  see  as  we  ride  past,  because  small  and 
green ;  to  the  eye  they  blend  with  the  leaves.  A  month  ago 
these  trees  were  in  blossom ;  there  were  forty  square  miles  of 
apple  blossoms  in  this  orchard.  The  odor  of  the  apple  blossom 
is  not  strong,  but  it  is  characteristic,  and  we  are  told  that  when 
this  orchard  is  in  bloom  it  is  distinctly  perceptible  a  hundred 
miles  to  the  windward. 

Our  way  is  broad  and  straight  and  well  paved,  but  there 


304  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

are  no  fences  to  harbor  weeds  and  obstruct  the  view  and  impart 
to  wayfarers  a  sense  of  limitation.  The  birds  here  are  myriads, 
and  they  make  this  orchard  vocal  with  their  morning-  song. 
The  American  robin  delights  in  the  forked  branches  of  an  apple 
tree  above  all  places  for  its  nest,  and  they,  together  with  the 
song  thrushes  and  nuthatches  and  waxwings  and  whippoorwills 
and  nighthawks  and  swallows,  and  others,  a  selected  variety  of 
insectivorous  birds  are  colonized  here,  and  fed  according  to 
their  needs ;  they  are  well  worth  their  keep  and  more,  for  their 
aid  in  destroying  harmful  insects. 

Three  and  a  half  miles  through  this  orchard  and  we  come 
to  the  main  irrigating  canal,  which  we  cross.  Beyond  this 
canal  to  the  forest  bordering  the  canyon  all  to  the  right  and 
southward  are  the  lands  cultivated  under  power.  Our  road, 
however,  turns  to  the  left  up  the  canal. 

In  this  direction  the  canyon's  border  draws  near  to  the 
level  of  the  canal,  and  the  land  growing  steep  and  rocky  is 
devoted  to  timber. 

Our  road  enters  the  forest  within  a  mile  of  the  bridge  by 
which  we  crossed  the  canal.  Here  on  the  border  between  the 
cultivated  land  and  the  forest  we  come  to  the  first  fence  we 
have  seen  on  our  journey.  It  is  a  strong  and  high  one  of 
woven  wire,  designed  to  keep  the  deer  that  inhabit  the  wood- 
lands out  of  the  cultivated  fields.  A  gate  in  this  fence  across 
our  road  opens  at  our  approach  and  closes  again  automatically. 
We  plunge  into  the  forest  where  our  road  becomes  a 
curved  one,  winding  according  to  the  lay  of  the  land.  A  mile 
and  a  half  of  this  brings  us  to  the  head  of  the  incline  by  which 
we  are  to  descend  into  the  canvon. 

Up  the  canyon  five  miles  further  east  there  is  another  in- 
cline similar  to  this,  and  at  that  point  also  is  the  main  bridge 


Fort  Goodwill  Again.  305 

crossing  the  canyon  to  the  White  River  division  of  the  agricul- 
tural lands.  The  approach  to  that  would  have  taken  us  five 
miles  out  along  the  eastern  avenue,  and  that  would  have  been 
the  course  for  us  to  have  taken  if  it  had  been  our  intention  to 
go  up  the  canyon  to  the  great  dam,  or  to  have  visited  the 
nurseries  of  the  board  of  forestry,  which  are  not  nearly  so 
extensive  now  as  they  were  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago; 
that  route,  however,  would  not  have  taken  us  through  the 
orchard,  which  we  wished  to  see,  and  we  are  going  down  the 
canyon  instead  of  up. 

The  incline  by  which  we  descend  is  a  double  covered  way 
with  a  moving  platform  on  each  track,  one  being  up  when  the 
other  is  down.  It  operates  like  an  ordinary  elevator  and  needs 
no  attendant.  Wheeling  our  cycles  on  the  platform  we  enter 
and  descend. 

Our  road  now  winds  along  the  bottom  of  the  canyon.  The 
bed  of  the  river  since  the  water  has  been  diverted  to  the  canal 
above  is  usually  nearly  dry,  but  there  are  bridges  over  the 
channel  where  its  windings  intercept  the  way ;  where  jutting 
points  of  rock  encroach  there  are  tunneled  arches  cut  through, 
or  galleries  cut  in  the  face  of  the  overhanging  wall;  where 
craggy  places  and  precipitous  cascades  intervene,  smooth 
causeways  of  stone  have  been  built. 

For  motor  carriages  or  bicycles,  or  horseback  excursions 
when  parties  prefer  that  mode  of  travel,  a  beautiful  road  has 
been  constructed  along  the  bottom  of  this  canyon  all  the  way 
from  the  great  dam  to  its  junction  with  the  Grand  River  can- 
yon below  Mount  Ceres,  where  the  great  Colorado  canyon 
begins,  and  along  the  course  of  that  it  is  now  in  progress. 

Here  of  old  all  was  naked,  inhospitable,  savage  in  its  wild- 
ness.  Now  the  rocky  walls  of  the  canyon  thrust  their  pro- 
montories out  through  the  foliage  of  a  hundred  kinds  of  trees 


306  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

while  their  precipitous  sides  are  draped  and  festooned  with 
chnging  vines.  Groves  of  mountain  spruce  thrust  up  their 
dark  spires  to  peep  over  rocky  ledges  out  of  the  depths  of  pre- 
cipitous abysses  rendered  more  dark  and  deep  and  grand  by 
their  presence.  Here  the  hemlock  drapes  with  its  dark  feathery 
green  the  precipitous  sides  of  a  hundred  rocky  gorges.  Young 
hemlocks :  what  can  be  more  beautiful  than  they,  combining 
as  they  do  all  the  graces  of  the  evergreens  and  the  deciduous 
trees,  their  plumy  spires  with  heavily  drooping  branches  im- 
penetrable to  the  eye,  their  myriads  of  dark  green  glossy  leaflets 
each  spread  so  flat,  all  set  so  thickly  in  the  spring  and  early 
summer  with  delicate  tassels  of  pale  green  at  every  growing 
point,  followed  later  in  the  season  by  clustering  little  cones 
turning  from  pale  green  to  brown,  and  at  all  times  loading 
every  breeze  with  their  fragrance. 

There's  grandeur  in  pine,  and  there's  beauty  in  cedar. 
In  the  beech  and  the  oak  and  the  ash  tree  so  tall. 

In  the  droop  of  the  elm,  in  the  spread  of  the  maple, 
But  the  young  growing  hemlock  outshineth  them  all. 

Along  the  margin  of  the  channel  cluster  the  white  boles  of 
the  sycamores  with  their  thin  spread  branches,  their  broad 
leaves,  and  in  the  fall  and  winter  their  dangling  clusters  of 
balls  hanging  on  the  branches  after  the  leaves  have  fallen. 

Yonder  on  the  sunny  side  of  the  chasm  spread  the  fern 
like  whorls  of  the  butternut  leaves  on  their  irregular  sprawling 
branches,  and,  just  a  shade  darker  in  color  and  smaller  in  size, 
more  compact  in  habit  of  growth  and  stronger  in  odor,  is  the 
similar  foliage  of  its  cousin  the  black  walnut.  Nearly  every  tree 
of  the  forest  has  its  characteristic  odor  by  which  a  blind  man 
might  recognize  it. 

Over  the  tops  of  the  cliffs  above  bend  the   branches  of  the 


Fort  Goodivill  Again.  307 

white  oak  and  the  sugar  maple ;  on  the  flats  in  the  bottom, 
mingled  with  the  sycamore  and  the  willow,  are  the  widespread 
drooping  branches  of  the  elm  ;  here  and  there  on  a  dry  knoll  of 
talus,  singly  or  in  clusters,  rise  the  dry  stiff  forms  of  the 
hickory,  and  the  broad  leafed  basswood,  so  prolific  of  honey 
and  buzzing  with  bees,  spreads  its  shade  over  the  way  in  a 
hundred  places.  The  wild  grape  vine  here  and  there  climbs 
among  the  branches  of  the  trees,  now  in  their  season  not  less 
interesting  to  the  bees  than  are  the  basswoods.  The  cucumber 
tree  also  is  here,  and  the  pepperidge,  and  the  chestnut,  and 
where  the  walls  open  a  cool  face  to  the  northward  with  damp 
ground  at  their  foot  the  white  cedar  raises  its  graceful  spires  in 
groups  and  clusters,  and  sheds  its  fragrance  in  the  air.  In  fact 
one  who  knows  the  trees  and  loves  them,  whether  he  comes 
from  the  north  or  the  south,  the  east  or  the  west,  on  this 
journey  can  scarcely  miss  any  acquaintance. 

And  squirrels  play  among  the  branches,  and  now  and  then 
with  a  whirr  the  ruffled  grouse  or  partridge,  the  drummer  of 
the  maple  sugar  camps,  starts  up  and  darts  away  like  a  rocket ; 
later  in  the  season,  when  brooding  young,  the  mother  bird 
of  this  species  will  flutter  away  from  the  foot  of  the  passer  by 
as  if  wounded  and  disabled,  while  her  chicks  hide  themselves 
under  the  leaves,  and  one  who  knows  their  habits  can  gather 
a  hatfull  of  the  little  brownstreaked  beauties ;  when  he  has 
observed  them  to  his  satisfaction  and  let  them  go  their  mother 
will  quickly  take  charge  of  them  again. 

If  we  sit  quietly  a  while  on  one  of  these  mossy  fragments 
of  rock  a  little  back  from  the  wayside,  the  wild  deer,  shy  but 
not  afraid,  will  come  to  see  us.  They  stand  at  a  little  distance 
striking  their  fore  feet  nervously  on  the  ground,  starting  away 
at  any  sudden  movement  but  timidly  approaching  again.  If 
wooed  with  a  lump  of  sugar  or  of  salt  they  will  approach  and 


308  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

lick  the  hand  that  offers  it,  for  these  beautiful  creatures  have 
never  known  an\i:hing  but  kindness  at  the  hand  of  man,  and 
the  degree  to  which  they  are  able  to  perceive  the  spirit  and 
divine  the  intention  of  their  human  visitor  is  wonderful. 

These  wild  deer,  so  swift,  so  graceful,  with  such  noble 
dignity  of  bearing,  with  their  antlers  spreading  so  finely,  when 
such  a  creature  honors  man  with  his  confidence  one  is  tempted 
to  take  off  his  hat  out  of  respect,  but  don't  do  it,  or  the  deer 
failing  to  understand  the  gesture  will  leave  you  very  suddenly. 

Returning  to  our  cycles  now,  we  resume  our  journey. 
Pushing  on  through  such  scenery  as  we  have  already  passed 
until  we  pass  the  opening  of  the  White  River  canyon,  our 
course  has  turned  from  south  to  westward. 

Soon  we  come  to  a  high  promontory  that  rises  on  the  left 
or  south  side  of  the  canyon.  This  is  Observation  Point,  and 
here  is  an  elevator  which  leads  to  its  summit.  We  can  have  no 
use  for  our  cycles  above  so  w'e  leave  them  here,  taking  with 
us,  however,  the  lunches  which  we  have  brought  for  our  mid- 
day meal.  Entering  the  elevator  car  we  push  the  button  that 
connects  its  motor  with  the  electric  current  and  rise  to  the 
summit. 

The  lift  from  the  bottom  of  the  canyon  to  the  top  of  this 
promontory  is  1,060  feet  in  vertical  height.  On  this  height  a 
pavilion  has  been  built  and  a  grove  planted.  There  is  also  a 
reservoir  here  which  is  filled  from  a  high  level  source  by 
pumping,  for  the  auxiliary  irrigation  needed  by  forest  lands 
at  high  levels  in  this  vicinity. 

This  point  is  directly  south  of  the  peninsula  of  agricultural 
land  that  constituted  the  first  wheat  fields  back  in  the  hurry 
season  of  '14. 

The  whole  Fort  Goodwill  agricultural  district  lies  spread 


Fort  Goodzvill  Again.  309 

about  us  like  a  map.  Bearing  a  little  east  of  north  we  look 
up  the  course  of  the  Green  River  canyon  down  which  we  have 
just  come.  Toward  the  northwest  we  look  directly  up  the 
auxiliary  canyon  of  the  Uintah,  and  coming  in  at  our  right 
from  the  east,  the  canyon  of  the  White  river  lies  darkly 
bowered  in  forests  like  the  others,  while  winding  past  us  on 
the  west  and  stretching  away  toward  the  southwest  lies  the 
downward  course  of  the  Green  River  canyon  into  which  all  the 
others  converge,  growing  wilder  and  deeper  as  it  goes,  as  the 
mountains  rise  higher  on  either  hand. 

Framed  between  these  canyon  borders  set  in  forests,  to  the 
north  of  us  lie  the  agricultural  lands  of  the  Fort  Goodwill  point ; 
their  central  aqueduct,  the  first  constructed  of  its  class,  dividing 
the  point  into  its  eastern  and  western  halves,  appears  as  a 
straight  line  of  granite  grey,  which  if  continued  would  pass  us 
on  our  left.  The  lines  of  power  sheds  extending  east  and  west 
at  right  angles  with  the  aqueduct  give  a  delicately  striated 
appearance  to  the  fields ;  the  portion  beyond,  where  the  power 
sheds  lie  north  and  south,  taking  their  origin  from  the  canal 
instead  of  from  the  aqueduct,  is  quite  distinct  to  the  eye  but 
though  from  three  to  six  miles  in  width  it  appears  to  be  but 
a  narrow  belt. 

Beyond  this  a  dark  bluish  strip  marks  the  Fort  Goodwill 
orchards  with  the  terrace  of  the  border  park  behind  it.  And 
there  beyond,  backed  by  the  towering  peaks  of  the  Uintah 
mountains,  is  the  city ;  taking  one  of  the  field  glasses,  which 
are  kept  here  for  the  convenience  of  visitors,  we  can  distinctly 
see  many  of  the  large  public  buildings,  while  here  and  there 
the  smaller  dwellings  gleam  among  the  trees  that  surround 
them. 

The  industrial  district  at  the  left  of  the  orchard  may  be 


310  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

distinctly  seen.  The  mountains  behind  all  this  would  not  seem 
to  an  eastern  eye  more  than  ten  miles  away  at  the  farthest,  and 
yet  the  city  center  yonder  is  twenty-four  miles  north  and 
about  five  miles  east  of  this  point,  and  when  we  have  reached 
it  we  are  less  than  half  way  from  here  to  the  peaks  beyond. 

There  on  our  right,  eastward  of  the  Green  River  canyon, 
the  White  River  division  of  the  agricultural  district  lies  spread ; 
this  is  four  times  as  large  as  the  Fort  Goodwill  point  and  cul- 
tivated under  power  in  the  same  manner.  In  this  direction 
the  western  Rocky  mountains  in  Colorado  form  a  background 
to  the  view. 

Out  on  our  left,  beyond  the  Green  River  and  the  Uintah 
canyons,  lies  the  western  division  of  the  agricultural  lands  with 
the  Wahsatch,  and  the  Western  Uintah  mountains  behind 
them. 

East,  west,  and  north,  all  this  great  expanse  is  green  with 
growing  crops.  The  southern  quarter,  from  which  this  pro- 
montory is  a  projecting  point,  is  a  rocky  mountainous  district 
unfit  for  agriculture  and  devoted  to  timber. 

In  the  canyon's  gorge,  as  it  winds  about  the  foot  of  this 
promontory,  the  white  trunks  of  the  sycamores  twinkle  among 
the  green  leaves ;  seen  from  this  height  the  canyon  walls 
dwindle  into  insignificance.  There  is  a  belt  of  forest  every- 
where along  their  borders  which  spreads  to  fill  all  the  triangles 
formed  by  the  obliquity  of  the  canyons  to  the  direction  of  the 
power  sheds,  and  some  of  these  triangles  contain  from  80  to 
100  acres,  so  that  these  forests  along  the  canyon  borders  are 
quite  extensive.  These  triangles,  with  abundant  water  from 
the  irrigating  mains,  were  the  first  land  available  for  forest 
planting,  hence,  though  even  here  the  trees  are  yet  young,  they 
are  nevertheless  better  grown  than  on  any  other  portion  of  the 


Fort  Goodwill  Again.  311 

woodland,  and  for  several  years  there  has  been  an  increasing 
supply  of  poles  and  small  timber  removed  to  thin  the  growth 
in  order  that  the  remaining  trees  might  thrive  the  better.  The 
borders  of  these  woods  next  the  fields  present  a  bank  of  foliage 
from  top  to  bottom,  relieved  here  and  there  by  deep,  dark 
recesses,  and  at  other  points  by  the  brighter  green  tipped  with 
sunshine  where  a  prominent  branch  or  tree-top  thrusts  itself 
beyond  the  general  contour  into  the  outer  light. 

As  we  look  down  on  these  forests  from  this  height  no 
individual  trees  are  seen,  only  billows  of  green,  varying  in  tint 
according  to  the  kind  of  trees,  all  fading  into  azure  grey  as 
they  recede  into  the  distance. 

Yonder  where  the  woods  stand  out  so  darkly  distinct  from 
all  the  rest  are  large  groves  of  pine,  cultivated  for  the  timber 
which  they  will  yield  ;  this  is  the  only  kind  of  timber  cultivated 
as  a  distinct  crop  and  permitted  to  occupy  the  ground  unmixed 
with  other  trees. 

Over  there  on  the  point  opposite,  mingled  with  other 
trees  the  better  to  fill  the  ground,  the  whitewood  or  tulip  trees 
are  thickly  sprmkled.  They  are  easily  distinguishable  from 
this  height  by  the  deep,  glossy  green  of  their  leaves,  differing 
in  tint  from  those  of  any  other  tree. 

There  the  sugar  maple  aboimds  and  yonder  the  white  oak, 
each  imparting  its  characteristic  tint  to  the  forest,  but  each 
mingled  with  beech  and  trees  of  many  other  kinds.  Belts  and 
scattering  trees  of  hemlock  and  spruce  are  distributed  among 
these  deciduous  forests,  both  to  improve  the  shelter  which  the 
woods  afiford  in  winter  and  to  enliven  the  view  when  the  leaves 
have  fallen  from  the  other  trees. 

The  conifers  native  to  this  region,  the  nut  pine  and  the 
mountain    spruce,   are   also   cultivated,   but   they   are  mostly 


312  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

reserved  for  the  higher  and  dryer  slopes  above  the  level  of 
irrig-ation. 

Here,  too,  in  suitable  places,  the  giant  sequoia  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada  has  been  planted,  and  though  small  yet,  on 
account  of  their  youth,  the  young  trees  are  thriving;  it  is  prob- 
able that  some  of  them  may  be  growing  yet  in  the  remote 
future  when  the  period  of  history  from  which  we  are  now 
passing  will  seem  as  strange  and  unnatural  as  that  of  the  cave 
men  seems  to  us. 

But  the  charm  of  this  landscape  that  is  spread  before  us 
varies  with  the  season.  When  in  the  autumn  the  leaves  ripen 
and  these  forests  glow  in  buff  and  scarlet  and  crimson,  all  set 
off  against  the  dark  background  of  the  evergreens,  it  .is  a  glory 
all  unknown  to  this  region  until  of  late. 

But  we  have  eaten  our  lunch,  and  for  nearly  two  hours 
surveyed  the  landscape  from  this  pavilion.  We  will  again  take 
the  car  on  the  incline  and  descend. 

Mounting  our  cycles,  again  we  are  off,  taking  our  way 
down  the  canyon  yet  as  if  continuing  our  journey  away  from 
Fort  Goodwill,  but  within  two  or  three  miles  we  come  to  an 
auxiliary  canyon  opening  into  this  from  the  right,  and  a  branch 
road  coming  down  to  join  that  on  which  we  are  traveling.  We 
take  the  branch,  and  directly  are  spinning  on  our  way  up  the 
Uintah.  The  scenery  takes  on  the  changes  to  be  expected  on 
an  auxiliary  which  is  the  course  of  a  smaller  stream,  though 
since  the  waters  of  both  have  been  diverted  into  the  irrigating 
canal  the  size  of  the  stream  counts  for  little  in  either  case. 

The  bed  of  the  Uintah  in  the  lower  eighteen  miles  of  its 
course  makes  as  great  a  descent  as  the  Green  river  makes  from 
the  great  dam  to  its  confluence  with  the  Uintah,  a  distance  of 
about  seventv  miles. 


Fort  Goodwill  Again.  313 

Hence  we  find  the  canyon  obstructed  by  cascade  after 
cascade,  and  to  pass  these  obstructions  our  road  often  winds 
along  the  face  of  the  bluff  and  out  into  the  woods  on  the  slopes 
above,  for.  thouj^h  the  channel  here  is  more  rug-j^^ed  and  steep, 
the  walls  of  the  canyon  are  more  broken  and  not  so  high.  The 
road  is  good,  however,  all  its  grades  are  easy  to  our  motors, 
and  we  wind  about  from  ravine  to  valley  and  from  valley 
to  hillside,  all  thickly  wooded.  In  these  woods  on  either  side 
of  the  road  a  crisp  carpet  of  last  year's  leaves  covers  the 
ground,  with  those  of  the  preceding  year  under  them,  and  of 
the  year  before  yet  beneath,  and  so  on.  until  the  decaying 
leaves  melt  at  the  bottom  into  the  black  mould  of  the  forest. 
Vegetation  here  takes  on  a  character  familiar  to  our  boyhood ; 
here  are  our  forgotten  friends  that  in  the  east  seemed  to  have 
been  exterminated  with  the  forest ;  our  foresters  have  taken 
pains  to  introduce  them,  and,  finding  conditions  favorable, 
they  have  flourished. 

Yonder  the  mandrakes  are  marshalling  their  umbrella 
brigades  on  the  slope,  and  there  is  the  rue  anemone  with  its 
delicate  foliage  overstrewn  with  dainty  cups  of  white,  and  the 
cimcifuga  with  its  slender  racemes  of  delicate  fringy  white 
blossoms,  and  the  blood  root  with  its  great  lone  stars  of  waxy 
white  with  radiant  golden  centers,  each  star  on  a  juicy  scape 
lifted  above  the  broad,  smooth  leaves  wnth  their  regular  deep 
carved  outline,  and  occasionally  we  see  a  belated  cluster  of  the 
wild  phlox,  which  a  little  earlier  made  the  half  shaded  openings 
along  the  canyon's  margin  gay  with  their  lilac  blossoms. 

If  we  had  been  here  when  the  leaves  were  just  bursting 
their  buds  on  the  trees  we  should  have  seen  sprinkled,  over 
these  banks  the  hepatica  blossoms  with  their  pale  faces  just 
blushing  with  pink,  or  some  of  them  blue  and  others  white; 


314  Perfecting^  the  Earth. 

and  the  adderstongne,  each  thick,  juicy,  mottled  leaf  folded 
about  the  scape  of  a  single,  small,  yellow  lily,  so  delicately 
fragrant,  from  which  six  great  brown  anthers  dangle,  each 
suspended  by  an  almost  invisible  thread ;  and  the  spring  beau- 
ties with  their  clustered  bells  of  pink  satin  streaked  with  crim- 
son, but  the  season  for  these  has  gone  by. 

The  pink  blossoms  of  the  wood  geranium  are  here  now, 
and  there  is  the  cypripedium,  the  ladyslipper  of  our  boyhood 
days,  with  its  yellow  sacculated  flowers  and  the  odor  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  orchid  family. 

And  there  is  a  dainty  darling  of  the  woodland,  the  Dutch- 
man's breeches,  dicentra  cucularia ;  it  would  be  a  dull  soul  that 
could  find  no  pleasure  in  the  sight  of  these  nodding  racemes 
strung  with  dainty  garments  of  waxy  white,  each  tied  at  the 
waist  with  a  golden  ribbon ;  their  foliage,  fine  cut  but  smooth, 
with  the  dusty  bloom  of  a  ripe-  grape  on  its  surface,  clustering 
close  on  the  carpet  of  dry  leaves,  and  these  racemes  of  fairy 
garments  drooping  over  the  cluster,  they  can  never  look  so 
well  with  any  other  setting. 

There  in  that  rocky  glade  at  the  edge  of  the  channel  just 
above  that  cascade  a  cluster  of  sweet  elder  bushes  are  spread- 
ing themselves  among  the  jagged  rocks,  and  just  now  their 
broad,  flat  c\mes  of  blossom  are  covering  the  green  of  the 
leaves  with  white,  and  their  fresh  odor  is  wafted  to  us  as  we 
ride  by.  And  there  in  the  grassy  swale  above  is  a  cluster  of 
wild  tiger  lilies  more  delicate  and  prettier  far  than  the  garden 
variety.  And  dressed  in  flaming  scarlet  yonder  is  the  cardinal 
lobelia,  and  its  cousin,  the  great  blue  lobelia,  too,  is  there 
close  by.  And  here  on  the  edge  of  the  glade  is  a  bank  of  blue 
violets,  and  there  the  wind  flowers  are  shaking  their  white 
chalices. 


Fort  Goodwill  Again.  315 

Now  we  pass  a  rocky  angle  by  the  canyon's  margin,  over 
which  the  wild  grape  vine  has  spread  itself  and  climbed  into 
the  trees  above ;  it  is  in  blossom  now,  and  the  air  is  filled  with 
the  odor  of  its  flowers  like  that  of  mignonette.  But  here  our 
road  leads  into  the  thick  woods  again,  and  we  speed  our  motors 
a  little  as  we  spin  along  the  meandering  way. 

Through  such  varied  scenery  we  run  about  fifteen  miles, 
then  we  come  to  a  fork  in  the  road.  The  way  on  the  left  con- 
tinues through  forest  and  glade  up  the  course  of  the  Uintah 
river,  but  we  turn  to  the  right. 

Within  a  minute  after  passing  the  fork  of  the  road  we  come 
again  to  the  wire  fence  separating  the  agricultural  land  from 
the  forest,  and,  as  before,  a  gate  opens  automatically  to  admit 
us  and  closes  again  when  we  have  passed  through,  one  of  our 
vehicles  having  of  course  been  guided  over  a  little  platform  in 
the  pavement  which  pushes  a  button  and  sets  in  motion  an 
electric  apparatus  that  opens  and  shuts  the  gate. 

Now  the  way  lies  directly  northward  five  miles  straight 
before  us.  On  our  right  is  one  of  the  fields  of  clover ;  it  is  now 
in  blossom,  and  its  fragrance  is  heavy  on  the  air.  Close  by  us 
on  the  left  is  the  power  shed  with  its  long  line  of  shafting  and 
pulleys  and  its  irrigating  main  set  in  the  stonework  beneath, 
and  in  the  pavement  under  our  feet  is  the  steel  track  of  the 
agricultural  service  railway. 

Following  this  al)Out  three  miles  we  come  to  where  they 
are  cutting  clover  for  the  cows  ;  it  may  be  worth  while  to  stop 
a  minute  and  watch  the  process.  Yonder  in  the  middle  of  the 
field  is  the  mowing  machine  approaching  us  with  a  car 
mounted  on  broad  rollers  attached  behind  it. 

The  cable  which  moves  them  is  running  over  the  pulley 
there  and  through  a  guide  fixed  just  outside  the  railway  track, 


316  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

which  holds  it  on  the  edge  of  the  stubble  that  was  cleared  by 
the  previous  trip  of  the  machine  across  the  field.  The  machine 
is  cutting  a  strip  eight  feet  wide  as  it  goes,  and  the  clover  as  it 
is  cut  falls  on  a  moving  apron  which  carries  it  into  the  car 
behind.  There  the  attendant,  the  only  man  that  travels  across 
the  field  with  the  mower,  using  the  apparatus  provided  for  that 
purpose,  distributes  the  clover  on  the  load.  In  cutting  across 
the  field  and  back  an  acre  of  ground  is  cleared  and  the  green 
clover  gathered  is  a  heavy  carload. 

But  here  it  comes.  Now  the  car  and  its  load  are  lifted  on 
a  kind  of  jack  worked  by  the  electric  current,  and  turned  over 
the  steel  track.  The  broad  rollers  are  then  removed,  the  car 
wheels  are  adjusted,  a  trolley  is  sot  in  the  guard  post  at  the 
rear  of  the  load,  and  away  goes  the  car  with  its  load  to  the  cow 
barns. 

The  rollers  are  now  placed  on  the  axles  of  the  empty  car 
that  has  just  arrived,  it  is  attached  to  the  mower  and  the  opera- 
tion is  repeated. 

This  is  going  on  during  the  entire  growing  season  in  many 
fields,  some  of  clover  and  some  of  other  forage  plants,  for  it  is 
found  that  the  cows  thrive  best  on  a  mixed  diet  and  their  tastes 
are  gratified. 

But  now  we  follow  the  loaded  car  out  of  the  field.  Five 
miles  from  the  gate  by  which  we  entered  from  the  forest  we 
come  to  a  small  tract  of  woodland  again,  occupying  the  angle 
formed  by  the  obliquity  of  the  canal  to  the  borders  of  the  fields. 
On  the  farther  side  of  this  lies  the  main  canal  with  its  electric 
railway  tracks  skirting  its  banks ;  the  car  loaded  with  clover 
here  turns  to  the  left,  but  we  cross  the  canal  and  turning  to  the 
right  soon  reach  the  southwest  avenue  of  Fort  Goodwill. 

Our  road  now  lies  straight  before  us  toward  the  northeast. 


Furt  Goodzuill  Again.  317 

On  our  left  is  the  industrial  district  with  its  many  and  varied 
factories  and  its  many  electric  railway  tracks  which  serve  them. 
For  a  mile  we  are  passinj^  the  section  devoted  to  the  iron  indus- 
tries, which  reaches  back  toward  the  northwest  three  miles. 
But  this  is  the  hour  when  a  new  relief  takes  charg"e  in  the 
works,  and  the  men  relieved  now  come  pouring  out,  a  great 
throng,  from  all  these  cross  streets  into  the  avenue;  some  are 
riding  on  single  motors  and  bicycles,  some  on  small  motor 
carriages,  but  the  majority  in  automobile  omnibuses.  We  ride 
along  with  the  throng.  Now  we  are  passing  the  machine 
works,  then  the  fiber  board  works,  the  cotton  and  the  woolen 
mills.  These  streets  opening  into  the  avenue  from  the  left 
reach  three  miles  back  lined  with  great  factories  and  industrial 
equipments  of  every  kind. 

Now  we  come  to  the  coal  yards  and  the  gas  works,  but 
here  an  innovation  has  been  introduced  since  the  works  were 
founded. 

All  the  young  forests  need  thinning  as  the  trees  grow. 
The  wood  gathered  thus  far  has  been  too  small  to  be  valuable 
for  lumber,  but  it  is  all  available  for  fuel.  It  has  been  found 
that  this  wood  will  produce  gas  even  superior  as  fuel  to  that 
obtained  from  coal.  There  is  no  waste  in  it,  even  the  ashes 
remaining  after  its  final  combustion  being  of  great  value  in  the 
fertilizing  department  and  in  the  arts  for  the  chemicals  they 
contain.  Hence,  with  the  increasing  supply  of  wood  the 
amount  of  coal  mined  is  growing  less  year  by  year,  and  the 
coal  mining  forces  are  being  drawn  of?  into  woodcraft,  which 
is  a  more  wholesome  as  well  as  a  more  esthetic  occupation. 

In  these  works  everything  is  conformed  to  the  conditions 
of  the  greatest  efliciency  of  machinery  and  force,  but  this  being 
secured,  pains  are  taken  to  have  the  surroundings  neat  and 
tasteful. 


318  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  this  avenue  from  the  industrial 
district,  that  is  on  our  right,  hes  the  border  of  the  great  orchard 
that  we  passed  through  some  twelve  miles  further  west.  We 
are  passing  by  it  here  for  three  miles  before  we  reach  the  high 
level  canal  that  separates  the  orchard  from  the  border  park  and 
the  hillside  rising  to  the  city  plateau. 

In  the  park  above  this  hill  the  throng  of  workmen  in  their 
automobiles  and  on  their  bicycles  begins  to  scatter,  turning 
through  the  parkways  this  way  and  that  to  enter  the  city  at 
points  most  convenient  to  their  homes.  Our  way,  however, 
lies  straight  before  us  to  our  hotel  on  the  border  of  the  city 
hall  park. 

As  we  enter  the  city  we  notice  that  there  is  a  display  of 
many  flags  at  half  mast  and  at  intervals  the  city  chimes  sound 
a  dirge. 

Enquiring  what  this  means,  we  are  told  that  the  old 
General,  Theodore  Goodwill,  last  night  passed  into  the  higher 
life,  his  body  being  found  cold  in  his  bed  at  9  o'clock  this 
morning;  his  obsequies  are  to  be  held  three  days  hence  in  New 
Utopia  where  he  lived.  Thousands  from  every  city  in  the  land 
will  attend  the  ceremonies  on  that  occasion,  and  we  will  do  so 
with  them. 


The  Obsequies  of  General  Goodwill.  319, 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

Again  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  the  people  are  pour- 
ing- into  the  great  auditorium  in  the  mountains  above  New 
Utopia. 

Since  the  occasion  of  the  great  celebration,  when  General 
Goodwill  delivered  his  valedictory  address  and  the  army  was 
disbanded,  great  improvements  have  been  made  in  this  audi- 
torium. Over  all  the  floor  of  the  valley  a  smooth  level  pave- 
ment has  been  laid ;  the  speaker's  platform  is  now  of  solid 
stone ;  in  the  clefts  and  irregularities  of  the  rock  walls  of  the 
valley  receptacles  have  been  built  and  filled  with  earth  in  which 
ornamental  trees,  shrubbery  and  flowers  are  cultivated,  and  in 
the  solid  rock  constituting  those  walls  chambers  have  been 
excavated  and  adorned  with  architectural  portals  surmounted 
with  sculptured  figures.  In  these  chambers  camp  chairs  are 
stored  in  numbers  sufficient  to  cover  all  the  floor  of  the  valley 
with  seats.  There  also  the  canvas  is  kept  with  which,  on  occa- 
sions when  the  valley  is  used  as  an  auditorium,  the  whole  is 
enclosed,  together  with  the  mechanism  for  putting  and  holding 
it  in  place,  the  auditorium  telephones,  and  other  furnishings. 

All  these  are  now  in  their  places  on  the  floor;  the  great 
tent  covers  the  valley,  flags  float  from  the  central  masts  half 
lifted.  Palm  trees  of  stately  dimensions  have  been  conveyed 
here  and  ranged  in  three  lines,  one  extending  in  the  same  line 
with  the  supporting  masts  of  the  tent  and  one  on  each  side 
near  the  border,  and  the  whole  valley  has  been  embowered  in 
greenery  and  flowers  in  such  a  manner  as  to  soften  but  not  to 
obstruct  the  view.    A  glory  of  shining  silk  drapery  radiating 


320  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

from  the  sound  reflector  and  covering  the  rock  walls  above 
and  on  each  side  of  the  platform  terminates  the  vista. 

Music  soft  and  melodious  fills  the  air. 

For  this  occasion  pneumatic  tubes  have  been  laid  from  the 
crematorium  in  the  pine  grove  to  the  altar  that  has  been  built 
yonder  on  the  platform,  and  thence  to  that  which  conveys  the 
ashes  of  the  dead  to  their  final  destination. 

This  vast  multitude  are  gathering  now  to  pay  their  tribute 
of  respect  to  the  memory  of  General  Goodwill ;  his  friend,  and, 
during  the  last  years  of  the  army,  his  chief  of  staff,  is  to  speak 
to  the  people  in  honor  of  the  departed. 

With  appropriate  music  the  ritual  commonly  used  on 
such  occasions  is  followed,  then  the  speaker  steps  forward  and 
addresses  the  people  thus  : 

*Tn  the  presence  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  assembled 
here  to  honor  the  friend,  comrade,  and  leader,  who  has  so 
long  walked  with  us,  what  shall  I  say?  His  was  the  rare 
good  fortune  to  open  the  door  admitting  mankind  to  the 
wealth,  the  joys  and  the  blessings  with  which  the  universe 
is  bountifully  rich,  and  enabling  each  and  all  to  partici- 
pate in  the  culture  and  the  knowledge  that  go  to  make  life 
worthy,  yet  he  was  in  no  sense  a  great  man.  Thousands  have 
lived  before  him  who  were  capable  of  doing  for  the  world  all 
that  he  has  done,  but  who  were  forbidden  by  the  unripeness  of 
the  time  or  the  circumstances  into  which  they  were  born  from 
doing  the  deeds  and  accomplishing  the  reforms  for  which  their 
souls  longed,  even  though  the  way  was  as  clear  to  them  as  it 
was  to  our  friend  just  gone  from  our  sight.  Often  it  was  that 
'Chill  penury  repressed  their  noble  rage,  and  froze  the  genial 
current  of  their  soul,'  and  the  world,  in  so  far  as  it  has  noted 
them  and  their  aspirations  at  all,  the  blind  old  world,  has 
pronounced  their  lives  failures  and  their  ideas  impracticable; 


The  Obsequies  of  General  Goodivill.  321 

it  has  imagined  that  their  lives  were  ended  and  that  their  pur- 
poses had  perished  with  them. 

"FooHsh  old  world,  and  blind!  Little  has  it  thought  that 
since  the  days  of  Siddartha,  Socrates  and  Jesus,  in  that  other 
world  pervading  this  of  matter,  these  lesser  lights  that  were 
accounted  but  as  darkness,  together  with  the  greater,  have 
continued  the  struggle,  inspiring  the  minds  of  such  among 
men  as  were  fitted  to  receive  their  inspiration,  preparing  the 
world  both  on  our  side  of  the  curtain  and  on  theirs  to  receive 
the  good  things  which  from  the  beginning  the  architect  of  the 
universe  had  prepared  for  his  children. 

"Heaven  could  not  be  heaven  until  the  earth  could  be 
heavenly  also,  for  the  universe  is  a  unit.  So  long  as  earth  pours 
forth  brutal  souls  into  the  other  life,  even  heaven  is  rendered 
powerless  in  proportion  to  their  number  and  their  wickedness, 
and  hell  pervades  this  world  and  the  other  also.  But  in  this 
struggle  of  the  ages  no  soul  ever  ceases  to  exist  nor  does  the 
desire  of  any  soul  cease  to  exert  its  force. 

"It  could  not  be  otherwise  than  that  ultimately  right  must 
subdue  wrong  and  wisdom  overpower  foolishness,  and  in  our 
time  the  great  souls  and  the  enlightened  of  all  the  ages  that 
have  preceded  us  have  been  able  to  sway  the  course  of  events 
as  never  in  any  preceding  age  was  possible. 

"This,  then,  was  the  rare  good  fortune  of  our  friend  who 
has  gone  before  us ;  in  the  fullness  of  time  when  the  world  was 
ready  to  be  led  he  was  in  the  position  to  lead,  knew  the 
way,  and  was  eager  to  walk  in  it.  His  opportunities  corre- 
sponded with  his  abilities  and  with  his  desires.  If  Theodore 
Goodwill's  life  had  been  cast  in  other  lines  and  he  had  lived  a 
few  years  earlier,  with  all  his  ability,  his  knowledge,  and  his 
aspirations,  he  might  have  died  unknown  and  a  pauper. 


322  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

*'And  yet,  if  it  had  been  so,  though  the  world  would  have 
counted  such  a  life  a  failure,  without  influence,  a  waste  and  a 
loss,  the  world  would  have  been  in  error;  all  such  lives  that 
have  gone  before  us  are  contributing  factors  to  the  triumph  of 
their  purposes  which  we  now  enjoy,  and  they  are  enjoying  it 
with  us. 

"Not  yet  is  it  generally  realized  how  short  is  the  road  that 
the  human  mind  has  traveled  from  infantile  limitations,  nor 
how  recently  it  started  on  that  journey.  In  the  infancy  of  the 
human  mind  the  earth  was  to  men  the  largest  body  in  the  uni- 
verse, inconceivably  great,  practically  infinite,  though  the  con- 
cept of  infinity  had  never  dawned  on  their  imagination.  The 
sun,  moon  and  stars  were  regarded  as  small  and  near,  space  at 
large  had  for  them  no  existence  and  their  imagination  did  not 
reach  out  tow  ard  its  void  to  wonder  about  it ;  men  thought  and 
imagined  only  within  narrow  limits,  a  little  beyond  their  bodily 
reach,  and  in  terms  grossly  tangible  to  the  bodily  senses  only. 

"These  were  the  limitations  of  infancy;  as  mankind  have 
conquered  fundamental  truth  and  assimilated  it  and  made  it 
their  own  they  have  departed  from  these  limitations,  but  such 
truth,  while  it  is  reached  by  a  process  of  investigation,  research 
or  reasoning,  is  not  wholly  conquered  and  assimilated.  Truth 
when  so  conquered  is  like  the  earth  under  our  feet,  we  are  not 
thinking  of  it,  nor  working  to  get  a  footing  on  it,  but  we  stand 
on  it  and  look  from  it  as  we  direct  our  attention  to  other  things. 
It  constitutes  our  point  of  view,  and  the  difference  which  the 
point  of  view  makes  in  the  outlook  is  vast ;  under  infantile 
limitations  mankind  were  looking  from  the  valley  and  notliing 
could  be  seen  but  the  near  at  hand.  But  having  conquered 
fundamental  truth  we  stand  on  a  peak  and  a  great  landscape 
lies  spread  before  us. 


The  Obsequies  of  General  Goodimll.  323 

"It  is  not  until  such  fundamental  truths  become  a  part  of 
the  basal  plane  upon  which  the  mind  stands,  held  uncon- 
sciously, without  question,  to  be  thoug^ht  from,  not  to  be 
thought  to,  that  such  truths  have  become  steps  in  the  way  of 
departure  from  infantile  limitations. 

"The  first  such  step  which  the  conmion  mind  of  man  has 
taken  has  grown  out  of  the  establishment  of  the  truth  of  the 
Copernican  theory  of  astronomy,  but  after  the  truth  of  that 
system  was  established  the  world  was  very  slow  to  take 
the  step.  Copernicus  lived  in  the  sixteenth  century,  but  not 
until  the  nineteenth,  was  the  step  taken  leading  out  of  infantile 
limitations  of  the  mind,  which  grew  out  of  the  truths  which  he 
had  established.  That  step,  growing  out  of  the  realization  of 
the  immense  distances  of  the  stars,  and  the  fact  that  such  dis- 
tances might  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  was  the  establishment 
as  a  fundamental  truth  to  think  from,  of  the  concept  of  the 
infinity  of  space. 

"The  second  such  great  step  in  the  enlargement  of  the 
human  mind  grew  out  of  the  science  of  geology,  and  as  the 
first  step  had  consisted  in  the  establishment  among  the  funda- 
mental data  of  the  mind,  of  the  concept  of  infinity  in  space,  so 
this  consisted  in  the  like  establishment  among  these  data  of  the 
concept  of  the  infinity  of  time.  But  the  first  step  had  prepared 
mankind  for  the  second,  and  it  was  comparatively  but  a  short 
time  after  the  truths  of  geology  became  known  ])efore  the  step 
was  taken.  These  two  and  no  others,  space  and  time,  are  yet 
the  infinities  realized  by  the  human  mind. 

"The  third  step  of  enlargement  comparable  in  importance 
with  the  other  two  was  the  establishment  in  the  human  mind, 
as  a  part  of  the  basal  plane  to  think  from,  of  the  evolutionary 
philosophy.  This  grew  out  of  the  ripeness  of  many  sciences 
and  the  cross  lights  thrown  upon  nature  by  each ;  with  its 


324  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

establishment   the   names  of  Darwin,   Wallace,   and   Herbert 
Spencer  are  associated  in  honor. 

"It  was  the  evolutionary  philosophy  that  first  made  the 
universe  intellij^ible,  and  its  establishment  as  a  step  in  the 
enlarofement  of  the  lumian  mind  would  have  been  impossible 
until  after  the  first  two  steps  had  been  taken.  This  step  may 
be  regarded  as  accomplished  by  about  the  end  of  the  third 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

"This  step  brino^s  us  to  our  own  time  and  place  in  the  pro- 
g"ressive  conquest  of  truth  and  the  emancipation  of  the  human 
mind  from  infantile  limitations.  A  fourth  step  is  preparing 
which  shall  bring  with  it  the  fruition  of  all  the  others.  That 
step  is  to  be,  like  the  others,  the  acceptance  as  an  unconscious 
datum  of  truth,  from  which  to  think,  of  the  reality  of  the  spir- 
itual order  in  nature  as  an  entity  animating  the  material  world, 
imparting  consciousness  to  it.  but  separable  and  distinct  from  it. 

"When  that  step  has  been  fully  taken,  mankind  in  the 
material  plane  of  being  will  grow  conscious  of  the  coming  and 
going  in  larger  freedom  of  those  who  have  lived  before  them ; 
they  will  recognize  their  presence  as  mentors  and  teachers  and 
guides,  in  the  higher  and  causal  plane,  of  those  not  yet  pro- 
moted to  that  plane,  suggesting  and  inspiring  our  best  thought 
in  our  hours  of  thoughtfulness,  and  playfully  leading  us 
through  the  realms  of  dreamland  during  our  sleep. 

"Our  friend,  leader  and  counsellor.  General  Goodwill,  dur- 
ing the  last  eighteen  years  of  his  life,  has  rested  from  his  labors, 
he  will  be  with  us  yet,  and  his  field  of  activity  is  enlarge<l,  not 
curtailed. 

"More  and  more,  as  the  consequences  ripen  about  us  of 
the  better  social  order  into  which  General  Goodwill  was  so 
largely  instrumental  in  leading  us,  we  shall  become  aware  of 


The  Obsequies  of  General  Goodunll.  325 

his  presence,  together  with  that  of  many  others  who  Hke  him 
have  been  transposed  to  the  higher  and  more  perfect  plane  of 
being,  the  spiritual  order,  until  finally  those  who  have  gone 
before  shall  yet  dwell  with  us,  and  we  shall  know  them  as  we 
are  known  by  them,  and  death  will  be  but  as  the  putting  ofT  of 
an  outworn  garment. 

"We  do  not  mourn  our  friend  as  formerly  the  dead  were 
mourned  ;  we  have  not  lost  him.  He  has  been  promoted  to  a 
larger  freedom,  and  in  his  larger  freedom  we  have  learned  to 
recognize  his  presence  in  a  larger  activity. 

"But  the  ashes  of  our  friend's  body  have  come,  and  now 
we  consign  them,  ashes  to  ashes. 

"It  is  superfluous  to  say  that  these  ashes  are  not  our 
friend.  Long  ago  when  a  little  group  of  friends  were  gathered 
round  Socrates  as  he  was  about  to  drink  the  poison,  one  of 
them,  Crito,  asked  him  in  what  way  he  would  have  them  bury 
him.  'In  any  way  that  you  like,'  answered  Socrates,  'only  you 
must  get  hold  of  me  and  take  care  that  I  do  n^t  walk  away 
from  you.'  So  we  might  now  do  as  we  pleased  with  our  friend 
if  we  could  get  hold  of  him,  but  between  our  friend  and  these 
ashes  there  is  nothing  in  conmion. 

"Ashes !  To  ashes  let  them  be  gathered.  Dust !  To  the 
dust  heap  let  it  be  conveyed.  Neither  our  friend  nor  any  one 
has  any  further  use  for  these  until  in  the  laboratory  of  nature 
they  are  dissolved  and  reassimilated  to  build  up  living  forms 
anew. 

"Friends !  Eternity  is  here.  We  are  living  in  the  midst  of 
it;  let  us  not  forget  this  truth.  And  while  duly  sensible  of  the 
responsibilities  of  our  citizenship  let  us  rejoice  that  we  are 
citizens  of  the  universe  forever.  And  let  it  be  our  joy  while 
here,  to  go  on  with  the  work  of  perfecting  the  earth,  in  the 


326  Perfecting  the  Earth. 

assurance  that  for  whatever  we  can  better  it  we  shall  find  that 
heaven  also  will  be  the  better." 

Then  swelling  music  filled  the  great  auditorium  and 
echoed  among  the  rocky  peaks  above  and  rolled  down  the 
mountain  side,  and  the  fair  city  at  its  foot  caught  up  the  strain 
from  every  organ  tower  and  prolonged  it  as  the  assembled 
multitudes  departed. 


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